美国国家公共电台 NPR Trump Has Stolen Democrats' Playbook On Trade

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

One issue that may well come up at tonight's debate is trade. President Trump¹ came to office as a fierce critic of U.S. trade policy, saying it's cost jobs for American workers, and he has upended many of the most important U.S. trade relationships. That has left the Democrats² running for president searching for ways to distinguish themselves, as NPR's Jim Zarroli reports.

JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE³: In their rhetoric⁴ on trade, it can be hard to tell the difference between President Trump and the Democrats running to replace him. Here's Trump during the Republican Convention.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I pledge to never sign any trade agreement that hurts our workers or that diminishes our freedom and our independence. We will never, ever sign bad trade deals. America first again. America first.

ZARROLI: And here's Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders on MSNBC last spring.

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BERNIE SANDERS: We have got to establish trade policies which do not allow corporate⁵ America to simply shut down in this country and refuse to pay workers here a decent wage and move to countries around the world, where they're paying people pennies an hour.

ZARROLI: Democrats have traditionally been the party of the working class, of labor⁶ unions. Much more than Republicans, they have been skeptics of global trade. But Trump has been able to outflank Democrats, says Dan Ikenson of the Cato Institute.

DAN IKENSON: It's pretty interesting because it's like Donald Trump has co-opted democratic trade policy.

ZARROLI: At one time, voters were more open to the promise of global trade, and Democratic presidents, such as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, could position themselves as free traders. But years of watching jobs flee overseas has soured many voters in both parties on trade pacts⁷, such as NAFTA, says Elaine Kamarck of the Brookings Institution.

ELAINE KAMARCK: Even before Trump, there was the beginning of a sort of left-right consensus⁸ that we needed to do something about trade and particularly something about China.

ZARROLI: Front-runner Joe Biden once supported trade pacts, but he's been forced to soft-pedal his positions.

Lori Wallach is founder⁹ of Global Trade Watch and a big critic of trade pacts, such as NAFTA. As she sees it, Democrats are finally returning to their roots as the party of labor.

LORI WALLACH: The Democrats that are running for president are largely reflecting where Democrats in Congress have been for decades and the Democratic base.

ZARROLI: But Wallach says Democrats have tried to differentiate¹⁰ themselves from Trump by saying he hasn't delivered on trade. Despite a chaotic¹¹ trade war, for example, there's still no trade agreement with China.

Again, Elaine Kamarck of Brookings.

KAMARCK: He's been on and off and around and up and down. And nobody knows where the negotiations¹² stand. And he says things that aren't true. And so I think on trade, this will come down to a matter of the president's competence¹³.

ZARROLI: To Dan Ikenson of the pro-trade Cato Institute, the political dynamic is disappointing. None of the front-runners is making a vigorous case for the economic benefits of trade, he says. Trump has launched a populist attack on trade.

IKENSON: And the response we're getting from many of the leading candidates for the Democratic nomination¹⁴ is to go to the left. What happened to the abandoned center? That seems, to me, to be a place where a lot of good things can happen.

ZARROLI: But as the election approaches, it's unlikely any candidate will be defending trade too aggressively. To win in 2020, candidates will have to make their case in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, and those are parts of the country that have seen a huge loss of manufacturing jobs over the years.

Jim Zarroli, NPR News, New York.

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1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 rhetoric   

n.修辞学，浮夸之言语

参考例句：

• Do you know something about rhetoric?你懂点修辞学吗？
• Behind all the rhetoric,his relations with the army are dangerously poised.在冠冕堂皇的言辞背后，他和军队的关系岌岌可危。

5 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

6 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

7 pacts   

条约( pact的名词复数 )； 协定； 公约

参考例句：

• Vassals can no longer accept one-sided defensive pacts (!). 附庸国不会接受单方面的共同防御协定。
• Well, they are EU members now and have formed solidarity pacts with members such as Poland. 他们现在已经是欧盟的一部分了并且他们和欧盟成员诸如波兰等以签署了合作协议。

8 consensus   

n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识

参考例句：

• Can we reach a consensus on this issue?我们能在这个问题上取得一致意见吗？
• What is the consensus of opinion at the afternoon meeting?下午会议上一致的意见是什么？

9 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

10 differentiate   

vi.(between)区分；vt.区别；使不同

参考例句：

• You can differentiate between the houses by the shape of their chimneys.你可以凭借烟囱形状的不同来区分这两幢房子。
• He never learned to differentiate between good and evil.他从未学会分辨善恶。

11 chaotic   

adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的

参考例句：

• Things have been getting chaotic in the office recently.最近办公室的情况越来越乱了。
• The traffic in the city was chaotic.这城市的交通糟透了。

12 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

13 competence   

n.能力，胜任，称职

参考例句：

• This mess is a poor reflection on his competence.这种混乱情况说明他难当此任。
• These are matters within the competence of the court.这些是法院权限以内的事。

14 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。