Second Best – Beats Last
Pooh understands it.
Second best is often the best you can do – and it sure beats finishing further back. “Second best” is a concept that, simply put, says don’t let your pursuit of perfection defeat the possibility of doing good. It’s the pursuit of perfection that is defeating the Obama Administration’s trade policy. I speak, once again, of free trade agreements.
FTAs are on my mind again because the European Union and India are on the verge of signing an agreement that has been in negotiation since 2007. Trade between the giant of South Asia and the Europeans has reached €53 billion – and negotiators on both sides say the pending FTA could help triple that in the coming five years, bringing jobs to Europe and boosting India’s development. Achieving agreement, and it isn’t finished yet, has not been easy. India and the EU have had nine rounds of talks, and both say that they would have preferred a successful Doha Round. But they have come to realize that a Doha agreement isn’t going to happen any time soon, and that an FTA is the best “second best” option they have if they want to grow their economies.
That’s what the Obama White House and the Democratic Party have not discovered. I see an approach to trade that is perhaps more typical of a trial lawyer’s viewpoint: you go full tilt toward the perfect outcome, no matter what the cost of doing so. For Obama and the Democrats, I fear that the “perfect” outcome has more to do with the wishes of certain trade unions or environmental organizations than the world trading system can support. It’s not that I oppose environmentalism or better working conditions, or that I am a Republican. I’m not. It’s just that the world trading system is not the appropriate vehicle to carry all that water. You solve those issues on their own merits or demerits, not because Washington threatens to raise tariffs on cut flowers. Obama’s failure to pursue free trade agreements is a classic example of not seizing the opportunity of the “second best”, of continuing to pursue perfection at the cost of the good. And the good in this case includes jobs for Americans.
“Second Best” is often the best you can achieve and it is no small accomplishment. We have three good trade agreements waiting for a decision from the White House. We have no others in the pipeline, despite interest in better trade by most of the world, because Obama and the Democratic Congress have not authorized our negotiators to work on more. Besides, given that you never know what American politicians will insist on including in a “trade agreement”, I suspect most of the world is reluctant to go through the effort of talking to Washington.
Stick to the subject, and go for the second best if the best is not obtainable.
