Today’s editorial in the Washington Post is a timely reminder of the negative consequences if Congress does not renew certain non-reciprocal trade preference deals (mainly allowing developing countries to import certain goods to the United States tariff free).

Although it strikes a somewhat mercantalist tone (e.g., it seems to imply that there may be reason to block trade deals if they do not “save American jobs”), the editorial board is right to say that the benefits to the United States from renewing these deals, both economic and political, certainly outweigh any “costs” from opening up trade that some members of Congress usually get upset about. Extending permanent normal trade relations to Vietnam (a topic I have blogged about here and talked about in this podcast) should be an especially simple matter.

I am a little skeptical about the long-term benefits of non-reciprocal trade preferences; they can lead to a culture of dependency and concentration in certain industries, and create political constituencies against multilateral trade liberalization, for example. But I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the problems related to these types of deals generally are sufficient to outweigh the benefits of approving the particular deals under consideration. In any case, somehow I doubt that the nuanced arguments against development-related unilateral preferences are the reason behind failure to pass the deals. The Washington Post suggests the inertia may be due to simple laziness. Surely not?