VIEWSrnCobden’s Pyrrhic Victoryrnbv Alfred E. EckesrnBill Clinton and Richard Cobdcn, a 19th-century Englishrnanti-Corn Law crusader, have more in common than consonantsrnin their surnames. As economic internationalists, bothrntrumpeted commerce as the panacea for attaining world peacernand prosperity. In their own ways, both bear responsibility forrnthe new international economic order which rests on the twinrnfoundations of universal free trade and world economic government.rn”Democrac’ and free trade go hand in hand,” Bill Clintonrnasserted at the Miami Summit of the Americas in Decemberrn1994. He promised that “free trade will vicld dramatic benefitsrnin terms of growth and jobs and higher incomes.” hi the use ofrnfree-trade hyperbole, few other than Cobdcn surpassed Clinton’srnrhetorical excesses, hi 1835, the Manchester cotton manufacturerrnpraised commerce as “the grand panacea, which, likerna beneficent medical discover}, will serve to inoculate with thernhealthy and saving taste for civilization all the nations ofrnthe world.” An evangelical free-trader, Cobden envisaged freerntrade “drawing men together, thrusting aside the antagonismrnof race and creed, and language, and uniting us in the bonds ofrneternal peace.”rnNot until Clinton’s presidency did Cobdcnisni finallyrntriumph in America. It took 150 years—and along the wayrnfree-trade crusaders experienced a number of defeats. Onernoccurred at the end of VVorid War I, when President WoodrowrnWilson submitted his grandiose plan for the League of Na-rnAlfred E. Eckes is Ohio Eminent Research Professor at OhiornUniversity and a former chairman and commissioner {1981-rn1990) of the United States International Trade Commission.rntions. That design, invoKing free trade and the surrender ofrnsome sovereignty to the league, failed to overcome congressionalrnresistance.rnCobdenism began to make gains after the Great Depressionrnand Roosevelt’s 1932 landslide removed the last Republicanrnobstacles. During the New Deal, Secretary of State CordellrnHull, a monomaniacal tariff-cutter, successfully planted thernseeds for the free-trade revolution. In 1934, he persuaded arnDemocrat-controlled Congress to authorize a reciprocal tradernprogram. In practice, reciprocal trade proved a misnomer. Itrnsucceeded primarily in opening the American market tornimports. After Wodd War II Hull’s initiative metamorphosedrninto a multilateral tariff-cutting effort, the General Agreementrnon Tariffs and Trade. Bipartisan support emerged when bothrnPresidents Truman and Eisenhower touted tariff liberalizationrnas a substitute for foreign aid.rnDuring Ronald Reagan’s presidency the Cobdenites pursuedrnthe bilateral path. Reagan concluded free-trade agreementsrnwith Israel and Canada, both relatively high-income countries.rnThese pacts had little adverse impact on high-paid, unskilledrnAmerican workers. In particular, the pact with Canada demonstratedrnthat removing trade barriers between advanced industrialrnnations with similar legal and business systems could provernmutually beneficial.rnIn George Herbert Walker Bush, the Utopian free-tradersrnfound a friend. Bush launched negotiations for NAFTA, thernNorth American Free Trade Agreement, the first such pact withrna low middle-income country, Mexico. Eager to help his friendrnPresident Cados Salinas de Gortari of Mexico, Bush rushedrnahead, pursuing free trade with a religious zeal that resembledrn14/CHRONICLESrnrnrn