MB Civic

By Robert Kuttner | Saturday, December 23, 2006 | The Boston Globe

Robert Kuttner, editor of The American Prospect, takes on a historic confrontation that is soon to unfold between the EU (spearheaded by France’s Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepain – same guy who busted Bush et al for lying about Iraqi nukes in 2003) and the US Government. Specifically, de Villepain proposes an EU “green tax” on US exports as a penalty for America’s failure to sign the Kyoto Accords for reducing greenhouse gases.

This action is not as radical or as original as it may seem. France is simply doing to us what we have done to other nations for decades: using the pressure of global trade regulations to enforce desirable behaviors.

In a larger sense, this is the begonning of something very big: if the world really is going to be one big marketplace, it needs to follow one set of consistent rules that are not necessarily writtten in America. America must not and increasingly cannot exempt itself, just as the President is bound by the same laws that govern the behavior of all citizens.

Environmental responsibility and stewardship of our fragile and shrinking planet is just the first in a series of confrontations about global trade. Currently struggling with a record breaking trade deficit and massive international debt (say thanks to The Decider), the US is in no position to bully its way through the world market any longer, contradicting the loony rhetoric and irrational policies of Bush and his goons…BS

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/12/23/trading_places/