Leaders
Barack Obama and free trade

111. Economic vandalism
Sep 17th 2009 From The Economist print edition

A protectionist move that is bad politics, bad economics, bad diplomacy and hurts America. Did we miss anything?

111-1-509
YOU can be fairly sure that when a government slips an announcement out at nine o󰡑clock on a Friday night, it is not proud of what it is doing. That is one of the only things that makes sense about Barack Obama's decision to break a commitment he, along with other G20 leaders, reaffirmed last April: to avoid protectionist measures at a time of great economic peril. In every other way the president's decision to slap a 35% tariff on imported Chinese tyres looks like a colossal blunder, confirming his critics' worst fears about the president's inability to stand up to his party's special interests and stick to the centre ground he promised to occupy in office.
This newspaper endorsed Mr Obama at last year's election in part because he had surrounded himself with enough intelligent centrists. We also said that the eventual success of his presidency would be based on two things: resuscitating the world economy and bringing the new emerging powers into the Western order. He has now hurt both objectives.

A. 어휘
vandalism 폭력, 예술과 문화의 파괴. protectionist 보호주의자.
move 운동, 조치. slip 입 밖에 내다. make sense 뜻이 통하다.
break a commitment 공약을 깨뜨리다. reaffirm 재확인하다.
measure 조치. peril 위험. slap 찰싹 치다. tariff 관세. colossal 거대한.
blunder 큰 실수. confirm 확인하다. critic 비판가. stand up to ...에 용감히 맞서다.
stick to ...에 집착하다. the centre ground 중간지점. occupy 점유하다.
endorse 지지하다, 承認(승인)하다. centrist 중도주의자.
resuscitate 소생시키다. new emerging powers 신흥 列强(열강).
objective 목적.

111-2-510
Deeply tyresome
Last year the fear was that Mr Obama would give in to enormous protectionist pressure from Congress. By introducing the levy, Mr Obama has pandered to a single union, one that does not even represent a majority of American tyre-industry workers, and he has done so against the interests of everyone else . America's tyre-makers, who have more or less given up making low-end tyres at home in favour of importing them (often from joint-ventures in guess where) declined to support the application for import "relief". Consumers will have to pay more. The motor and garage trades will be harmed. And no one can seriously imagine that any American tyre-making job will be saved firms will simply import cheap tyres from other low-cost places like India and Brazil.
One might argue that these tariffs don't matter much. They apply, after all, only to imports worth a couple of billion dollars last year, hardly the stuff of a great trade war. China is incandescent with rage but China is a master of theatrical overreaction. Its actual response so far has been the minor one of announcing an anti-dumping investigation into American chicken and car-parts exports. The whole affair might blow over, much as did the furore surrounding George Bush's selective steel tariffs (much worse ones than Mr Obama's on tyres) back in 2002. Presidents, after all, sometimes have to throw a bit of red meat to their supporters: Mr Obama needs to keep the unions on side to help his health-reform bill.

A. 어휘
give in 굴복하다. enormous 거대한. protectionist 보호무역주의자.
Congress 미국 의회. levy 課稅(과세), 徵募(징모).
pander to ...에 영합하다. pander 뚜쟁이, 갈보집주인, 뚜쟁이 질을 하다.
union 勞組(노조). represent 대표하다. more or less 대체로. low-end 값 싼.
in favour of ...을 선호하여, ...을 위하여. joint-venture 합작투자(사업).
decline 거절하다, 謝絶(사절)하다. application 신청, 적용.󰡒relief󰡓구조자금.
garage 자동차 수리소. motor and garage trades 자동차 및 자동차 수리업종.
firm 회사. argue 주장하다. tariff 관세. apply...to ...에 적용되다.
stuff 물건, 재료. incandescent 백열광을 내는, 열렬한. rage 분노.
theatrical 연극적인, 극장의. blow over 가라앉다, 잠잠해지다.
furore 격정, 열광. selective 선택적. reform 개혁. bill 法案(법안).