Bush’s visit to China raises questions about when and how Washington should link its trade policies and human rights objectives. Those questions go far beyond just the Beijing Olympics, and to the heart of how U.S. trade policy is—or should be—made.
Policymakers must think clearly and creatively about how to offset the perceived imbalance between trade and human rights in huge markets like China, as well as in
smaller countries like Colombia. If the United States could collaborate with other countries and better utilize existing multilateral agreements, perhaps the threat of an
Olympic boycott would not be necessary to encourage Beijing to moderate its repressive behavior, or at least to stop arresting its opponents. Trade agreements can certainly enhance human rights, but only if Americans take the lead in rewriting these policies.
Susan Ariel Aaronson is Associate Research Professor of International Affairs at the George Washington University, teaching in the Elliott School International Affairs and the School of Business.
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May 1, 2008
Ilyas M. Mohsin, PPP, Platinum Contributor (296)
violating well-established principles. Such dilly-dallying, if not lack of wisdom, produced the present-Iran and many others would emerge in the course of a few years. The carnage of the people in Iraq/ Afghainstan while under its occupation is not likely, generally, to win the US friends. It has a great potential of spreading extremism which becomes a threat for moderate mulims too.