Economy & Trade, Global Governance, Globalisation, Headlines, North America

U.S.: Support Ebbs for Trade and Farm Subsidies – Poll

Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON, Jan 22 2004 (IPS) - Most people in the United States disapprove of their country’s trade policy and want leaders to beef up measures to cushion trade’s negative effects on workers and the environment, a new survey showed Thursday.

A poll by the Programme on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland found that more than one-half of people surveyed (53 percent) supported increased international trade in principle, but were dissatisfied with how the administration deals with “the effects of trade on American jobs, the poor in other countries and the environment”.

Eighteen percent said they opposed the growth of trade altogether while 20 percent said they were happy with U.S. trade policies.

Sixty-three percent of those polled said, “government efforts to help retrain workers who have lost jobs due to international trade” have not been adequate, an increase from 57 percent in a 1999 PIPA poll on globalisation.

More than 9 in 10 respondents favoured incorporating labour and environmental standards into trade agreements.

People are less enthusiastic about trade, said Steven Kull, director of PIPA, after comparing the results to the 1999 poll.

“But at the same time, two-thirds say that, in principle, they support the reciprocal lowering of trade barriers. It’s just that they feel more needs to be done to mitigate the effects on workers and the environment,” he added in a statement.

The PIPA poll was conducted with a nationwide sample of 1,896 respondents from Dec. 19 to Jan. 5. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3-4 percent.

The results emerge as the United States pursues an aggressive strategy of so-called free trade agreements (FTA) with many countries across the globe.

Washington is working to conclude FTAs with Australia and Morocco, and is in talks with five southern African countries – Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland.

U.S. officials have also announced intentions to negotiate FTAs with Bahrain and Thailand, and last year U.S. President George W. Bush floated an idea for a free trade area with countries in the Middle East, to be implemented over 10 years.

Washington is also engaged in talks to create a free trade bloc for the Americas, which would encompass 34 countries in the western hemisphere, (all nations except Cuba).

The office of the U.S. Trade Representative has also concluded deals with four Central American countries, with some of their neighbours lining up to join in.

Washington’s existing free trade partners are Canada and Mexico (within the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA); Israel and Jordan.

But the poll found that, overall, the public views Bush’s handling of trade as “a modest net negative: for the president’s re-election prospects”.

Presidential elections are scheduled for November 2004, and labour and employment issues are expected to play a major role.

Only 21 percent of respondents said Bush’s handling of global trade issues would increase the likelihood they would vote for him, while 37 percent said it decreased the likelihood.

The majority of people surveyed also said they believed that U.S. trade policy-makers did not care much about ordinary Americans.

The poll found that 77 percent believed the administration pays “too little attention to working Americans”.

A large number, 62 percent, said leaders were paying too little attention to “the growth of the overall American economy”. This is up sharply from only 36 percent in 1999.

Also, according to the survey, the U.S. public seemed to lean against farm subsidies, which have become a major stumbling block in global trade talks.

In September a World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministers’ meeting collapsed, partly due to deep divisions between rich and poor nations over agriculture and the insistence of developed countries, like the United States and Japan, to retain hefty farm subsidies.

Washington has been particularly targeted because of its recent 125-billion-dollar increase in farm subsidies.

The poll found that 77 percent of respondents supported subsidies to small farms (under 200 hectares), but only 31 percent endorsed them for large farming businesses (over 200 ha).

About 80 percent of U.S. subsidies go to large farming businesses.

Nor did most of those surveyed support the current policy of providing subsidies on a regular annual basis, rather than only in challenging economic times.

Only 34 percent favoured giving small farmers regular subsidies, and just nine percent favoured regular support to large farming businesses.

“While the public would oppose eliminating all farm subsidies, the scope of subsidies the public supports is so much narrower than is currently provided that, if the public’s preferences were followed, this would largely remove the current obstacle in trade negotiations,” said Kull.