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Clinton: Balancing Goals and Resources
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10102 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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4 / 1993 |
2,482 Words |
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Martin Sieff
Martin Sieff is a Soviet and Eastern European affairs
correspondent for the Washington Times. |
President Clinton election by focusing on domestic American concerns, and his presidency is widely expected to see an inward turning of U.S. foreign policy concerns. But the president's speeches during his election campaign, and the pattern of appointments and early moves his foreign policy chiefs made during their first weeks in office, suggest that this will be an activist rather than reactive team, that will seek to restructure traditional trade and security relationships, using foreign policy to forward their domestic economic agenda while promoting democracy and human rights worldwide.
Foremost will be the issue Clinton was elected on. The election slogan that hung in his campaign's headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas, said simply: "The economy, stupid." The day after his election, Clinton told ABC's Ted Koppel: "I am going to focus like a laser beam on this economy, and foreign policy will come into play as it affects the economy."
Clinton's economic appointments indicate that he will tilt toward protectionism. Trade and foreign policy appointments reflected this. Secretary of State Warren Christopher showed little interest in economic affairs while he was President Jimmy Carter's deputy secretary of state from 1977 to 1981. Thus, he is unlikely to strongly counter the trio of strong protectionists in Clinton's cabinet: Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen, a champion of preferential treatment for major domestic industries, in particular the oil industry; Trade Representative Mickey Kantor, who immediately on taking office began talking tough to both Japan and the European Community (EC) on continued trade disputes with them; and Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, who has strong links with the AFLCIO, the national alliance of trade unions that is committed to protecting the jobs of its members. Kantor, at his confirmation hearings, pointedly noted that 90 percent of the U.S. trade deficit with Japan was caused by auto imports, largely, spare parts.
The de facto result of the Clinton administration's increasingly aggressive moves to protect American companies from what it regards as unfair European or Japanese competition may be to splinter the world into massive trade blocs. For while trade relations with the EC and Japan appear increasingly strained, Clinton has already signaled his determination to push ahead with formation of the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico. Clinton pointedly made sure that Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, NAFTA's chief champion in his country, was the first foreign head of government whom he met after his inauguration.
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