This is from a Wall Street Journal article about President Obama’s push for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP):
Mr. Obama also warned of rising anti-globalization sentiment in Washington, reflected in Democratic opposition to the trade agreement [TPP], Republican efforts to kill the Export-Import Bank, and congressional unwillingness to approve new rules for operation of the International Monetary Fund.
I agree that opposition to the TPP often, although not always, reflects anti-globalization sentiment; I’m not familiar with the IMF issue here. But on the Ex-Im Bank issue, I think the President has it backwards. His logic, I assume, is that subsidies from the Ex-Im Bank promote exports, and are therefore pro-globalization. But this logic is flawed. The reality is that all export subsidies are a form of economic nationalism, in the sense that they try to give an advantage to domestic products over their foreign competition. This leads to escalating trade wars and international economic tension. The pro-globalization approach would be negotiate an end to the subsidies provided by export credit agencies, and let all products compete in the global marketplace without government support for domestic industry.
