Disturbing piece by John Bussey in the WSJ, noting how, as Congress dithers on free trade pacts regarding Colombia, Panama and South Korea, our competitors are moving ahead with their own and on that basis expanding their export presence while US firms cannot due to the higher tariffs suffered. The US soybean industry (a big deal here in Indiana) alone thinks it's losing $3B in ag exports. Boeing says it's losing out to Airbus in South Korea. The list goes on and on.
Our problem is that we try to legislate all sorts of additional regulations into the FTAs, attempting to force this or that "fairness" on the counterparty in terms of how they treat their environment, labor, etc. We use the excuse of the FTA to attempt all manner of socio-economic engineering and, in doing so, make the deal so complex that it lingers in legislative limbo sometimes for years on end.
It is a fascinating method of shooting our economy in the foot and then wondering why we lose the race, especially since, if you want real socio-economic progress in any country, the fastest way to achieve it is to foster income growth and let the locals manage it on their own timetable and agenda.
But that would be too easy, make too much sense, and preserve too many American jobs.