New IBD Op-ed: For Obama, Free Trade Is Key To Success

The great folks at the Investor's Business Daily have just published a new op-ed by me and AEI's Phil Levy.   In it, we argue that President Obama has a fantastic opportunity to do what only a few months ago seemed utterly unthinkable: to finish the WTO's Doha Round by the end of 2011.

Don't laugh!  If Obama takes our advice and puts forth a serious US proposal, combined with a little leadership and diplomacy, he could actually pull it off.  

Granted, that's a rather big "if," but still, the time is right to finally - finally! - conclude the Doha Round.  And the United States needs to go big or go home.  Period.

Here are a few snippets from the new piece:

The last two years of Doha Round stagnation have proved that U.S. leadership is essential. The president could provide that with an ambitious proposal to reduce agricultural subsidies....

The move would be timely. The G-20 leaders in Seoul, South Korea, and the APEC leaders in Yokohama, Japan, recently called for a Doha "end game" in 2011 and publicly directed their trade negotiators to re-engage in across-the-board negotiations to conclude the round.

The WTO's director general, Pascal Lamy, just offered an intensified work plan, endorsed by almost all 153 WTO members, that would complete the round by December 2011....

But a bold proposal alone would not suffice.

There is no possibility of selling a Doha deal on Capitol Hill without new access to the major emerging markets. India and China's reluctance to offer such access helped crash the talks in 2008.

The U.S. therefore needs a developing country partner with heft and influence....

Intrigued?  Good.  Now go read the whole thing here.  C'mon, you know you want to.