In May of last year, President Clinton announced that the United States was sending U.S. troops to Macedonia to safeguard it from the Serbians. But, a few weeks later, while Macedonia was struggling with a flood of refugees from Bosnia and threats of invasion, the U.S. Commerce Department launched a preemptive attack on a trickle of Macedonian clothes exports. Unfortunately, the Macedonia decision exemplifies the protectionist tendencies of the Clinton administration. The U.S. has imposed new textile import quotas on over fifteen nations since Clinton took office. One of the most surprising new quotas is the early 1994 quota imposed on silk clothing from China.
Every trade barrier undermines the productivity of capital and labor throughout the economy.
A 1979 Treasury Department study estimated that trade barriers routinely cost American consumers eight to ten times as much as they benefit American producers. Fair trade consists largely of the U.S. government devising new ways to protect American consumers against the scourge of low prices. Imported clothing that is priced lower than U.S. clothing is automatically assumed to threaten to disrupt the U.S. market. Fair trade aims not to safeguard competition but to enrich American competitors. In a nation with hundreds of federal, state, and local consumer protection agencies, consumers are explicitly denied a role in most trade proceedings of the U.S. International Trade Commission and Commerce Department.