The Green President

If you wonder whether the Obama Administration has a green agenda, the answer was obvious at the G20 summit in Seoul, South Korea. Headlines spoke of how other countries view the Administration's economic policies as out of line. Take a look below the headlines. The trade agreement between the U.S. and South Korea remains stalled. The reason is South Korea refuses to relax its emission and mileage standards so U.S. automakers can more easily adapt their cars for the Korean market. Yes, the U.S. asked the Koreans to lower their environmental standards. One could argue the President is willing to compromise on his principles, to account for what the American people conveyed at the polls earlier this month. Without solid economic growth, electoral support for "change" is unlikely, so he had to compromise to be able to sell more American-made cars in Korea. Does anyone believe in the short-term South Korea is going to be a major market for American-made cars and save American jobs? More realistically by keeping the barriers to trade higher than would be the case with a trade agreement, the Administration is hoping to keep more Korean cars from selling in the U.S. and save UAW jobs. Even this is flawed logic because the way around the barriers is to produce the cars in the U.S. at sites likely not to support the UAW.

The Administration's actions appear simply to be political payback for the support from the UAW. Yes, the Obama Administration has a green agenda - keep the green dollars flowing into the political campaign war chests.


References:

Richardson, Alex. "Factbox: Outcome of the Seoul G20 Summit | Reuters." Business; Financial News, Breaking US; International News | Reuters.com. Ed. John Chalmers. Reuters, 12 Nov. 2010. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AB1G920101112.

Griswold, Daniel. "President Obama Represents UAW Rather Than U.S. in Korea Trade Talks | Mad About Trade." Mad About Trade | Observations on Trade, Globalization and Immigration. N.p., 12 Nov. 2010. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. http://madabouttrade.wordpress.com/2010/11/12/president-obama-represents-uaw-rather-than-u-s-in-korea-trade-talks/.