Exercising Our WTO Rights

Roger Tauss highlights a little-known provision under Article 12 of the World Trade Organization that allows countries "to impose a temporary, across-the-board tariff increase to reduce America’s trade deficit." That's right - WTO rules allow tariff increases, but only for the purpose of closing a persistent trade deficit. We can’t raise tariffs to gain a trade surplus, but we can do so to close a deficit. The AFL-CIO is now calling for the Bush administration to invoke this article, especially as we face burgeoning and destructive trade deficits. Will the White House listen?

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