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If the Senate learned right before a ratification vote that America’s chief arms control negotiator knew little about arms control, any treaty this official concluded would be dead on arrival.  Ditto for a peace treaty produced by a diplomat demonstrably short of knowledge about the adversary.  Why, then, do both the House and Senate seem so gung ho about three trade agreements handled by a U.S. Trade Representative who recently revealed major misconceptions about both America’s international commerce and its domestic economy?

Anyone doubting that this description applies to Ron Kirk should read an interview that President Obama’s chief trade envoy gave to Tim Robertson of the California Fair Trade Coalition in late August.  Even allowing for impromptu nature of! the exchange, several of Kirk’s answers to Robertson’s questions about the pending trade deals with Colombia, South Korea, and Panama, make painfully clear that America’s trade policy point man is largely unaware what kinds of products the United States imports and, at least as important, what kinds Americans make.  Consequently, it’s hard to imagine him knowing whether the provisions he agreed to in these deals and trade-offs he accepted will help or harm America’s faltering economy â€" the acid test of U.S. trade policy.

Like President Obama and the rest of his team, Kirk has usually treated imports as if they didn’t exist.  Even though America’s purchases from abroad subtract from gross domestic product and therefore reduce employment, Kirk’s assessment of trade policies and their effects has focused almost solely on their potential to increase exports.   

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