Free Trade or Fair Trade...?

Joh Tsuani, who has more time to read than I, found this in the Wall Street Journal about what Sherrod Brown had to say about the Colunbia "Free" Trade Agreement.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, one of the best legislators in the Congress on just about every issue but certainly on trade, had an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal yesterday that called "Don't Call Me a Protectionist". Taking on the issue of the so-called "free trade" deal with Colombia, here's the key passage:
Let's focus on the merits of the agreement. Supporters sell it as a free-trade agreement, a great opportunity for American companies because it eliminates tariffs on our products. If that were true, the agreement would be a few lines long.

Instead, we have a trade agreement that runs nearly 1,000 pages and is chock full of giveaways and protections for drug companies, oil companies, and financial services companies, and incentives to outsource jobs now held by Americans.

Nafta. The Central American Free Trade Agreement. China. Now Colombia. We have a pattern in our trade policy that aims to protect special interests, but betray our workers, our environment, our communities.

Let's stop accusing one another of being protectionists. And let us agree that U.S. trade policy – writing the rules of globalization to protect our national interests and our communities – is worthy of a vigorous national debate.
Readers of this blog know that I've made this repeated argument--that we should debate trade and the rules being set up, not dumb marketing phrases like "free trade". Good for Sherrod for pushing this point.