Steven Pearlstein speculates that CAFTA is a bust on grounds that the US sugar lobby will oppose its provisions that raise import quotas by 1 percent over 15 years. Yes, it turns out that, contrary to all prior experience, this trade agreement would seem to actually require that some US special interest give up just a tiny bit of its mercantilist privileges, and thereby lower the price and increase the quality of goods purchased by the American consumer—meaning that it might take us slightly closer to real free trade in one sector sometime over the next decade and a half—so of course we can’t have that!
In the DC dictionary, free trade means that foreigners buy our stuff, not that we get to buy their stuff.
