Keep in mind that Obama campaigned as a politician who would not let lobbyists and special interest groups dictate federal policy any longer.
Editor, The Wall Street Journal
1211 6th Ave.
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:
Reporting on the U.S.-Korea free-trade pact, you write that “South Korea agreed
to give the U.S. five years to phase out a 2.5% tariff it levies on Korean-built
cars, rather than cutting the tariff immediately” (“U.S., Korea Agree on
Free-Trade Pact,” Dec. 3).
In other words, South Korea agreed to allow Uncle Sam to continue to impose
additional financial burdens on Americans who buy automobiles made in South
Korea, for no reason other than to make life easier for Detroit.
So much for the Obama administration’s courageous refusal to allow
special-interest groups (in this case, U.S. automakers and the UAW) to dictate
policy – so much for our leader’s eagerness to get the policy right even if
doing so means getting the politics wrong – and so much for all the ballyhoo,
out of Detroit and Washington, about U.S. automakers again being world-class
producers who can compete on the merits with foreign automakers.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
George Mason University
