“An educated consumer,” the New York haberdasher Sy Syms used to boast in his television commercials, “is our best customer.” The same is not true of trade pacts. Since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement 20 years ago, voters have come to understand them better and like them less. True, 54 per cent of Americans see trade as an “opportunity for growth”, according to a recent Gallup poll. But 38 per cent see it as a “threat to the economy”, and they are dug in. Many blame globalisation for the 60,000 plants closed, by some estimates, and the 5m manufacturing jobs lost since Nafta was passed. The White House – negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the EU and the Trans-Pacific Partnership with 12 nations – finds itself failing on both fronts.
「受過教育的消費者是我們的理想客戶」，紐約男子服飾經銷商Sy Syms曾經在電視廣告中這樣標榜道。這一點對於貿易協議來說並不成立。因爲20年前隨著《北美自由貿易協定》(NAFTA)的通過，投票人對於貿易協議的瞭解程度日漸加深，好感度卻越來越低。蓋洛普(Gallup)近期進行的一項民調顯示，54%的美國人認爲貿易是一種「促進成長的機遇」，但有38%的人則認爲貿易是一種「對經濟的威脅」，而且他們對此深信不疑。據估計，自《北美自由貿易協定》通過以來，美國共有6萬家工廠關閉，500萬個製造業工作崗位消失，很多人將此歸咎爲全球化的影響。目前，白宮一方面在與歐盟就《跨大西洋貿易和投資夥伴關係協定》(TTIP)進行談判，另一方面則在和12個國家商談《跨太平洋戰略經濟夥伴關係協定》(TPP)。但在這兩個方面，白宮取得的進展均不盡人意。