Don Walton: Johanns recalls trade talks

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Mike Johanns was there the last time international trade talks collapsed in Geneva.

During his tenure as secretary of agriculture, Johanns was at the table for World Trade Organization negotiations, working in tandem with the U.S. trade representative.

He remembers some all-nighters.

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“We negotiated literally around the clock” during one 10-day WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong, he recalls.

Johanns formed a particularly close working relationship with Rob Portman when the former Ohio congressman was the Bush administration’s trade representative.

They “traveled the world together,” Johanns says.

When he joined the Cabinet as ag secretary, Johanns says, “I called Portman and said that as a guy who represents agriculture, I’d like to be with you” for trade talks that increasingly were focusing on disputes over ag tariffs and subsidies.

Portman welcomed Johanns aboard.

Last week’s collapse of  WTO negotiations “doesn’t necessarily mean they are dead,” Johanns says.

“This is the third summer in a row when talks have fallen apart. But you do wonder how often they can be revived.”

The reality now is that international trade negotiations probably will be stalled for a year or more while a new president and his administration get their feet on the ground in Washington and form their own trade policy, Johanns says.

“You’ve got to wonder if the (current) Doha Round of trade talks will even be on the radar screen that first year.”

In the meantime, Johanns says, he expects an international “rush to do bilateral trade agreements to open up markets.”

Three bilateral agreements between the United States and South Korea, Colombia and Panama are stuck in Congress.

“They’re not moving,” Johanns says.

“The United States always had a policy of working both ways,” he says, negotiating internationally and bilaterally.

“We should absolutely go ahead with bilateral agreements now.”

Trade policy is bumping into “a more protectionist mood around the world,” Johanns says.

“If you’re a large country with a large economy, you still can try to find a market for what you manufacture or grow.

“But what if you’re Africa, where people are starving?  I remember the trade minister from one African country who said to us one day: ‘Who will negotiate with me?’

“The only way they can get a benefit is with a multilateral international agreement.”

The consequences of inaction for Nebraska and other agricultural states, Johanns says, is that “those tariffs that make it impossible for our farmers and ranchers to compete will stay very high now.”

Finishing up

* Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of 500 likely Nebraska voters, conducted on July 28, gave Johanns a 25-point lead over Scott Kleeb in the Senate race.  It was Johanns, 56 percent; Kleeb, 31 percent.

* Taking note of those figures, Kyle Michaelis, whose New Nebraska Network blog is supportive of Kleeb, wrote: “It’s not enough to run against the status quo.”  Kleeb, he wrote, must begin to challenge Johanns on the issues and on his record.

* Mark Quandahl will serve as chairman of the Nebraska delegation to the GOP national convention. Quandahl and Pat Dorwart will be Nebraska’s representatives on the platform committee.

* The Obama campaign is poised to make the first serious Democratic bid for presidential votes in a Nebraska general election in four decades.

* Irony: Deregulation is a favorite theme of the business community, but deregulation of the airline industry could forever place limits on Lincoln’s potential for economic growth.

* A weekend accounting of recent Lincoln economic losses to Grand Island by our newspaper neighbor 50 miles up the road on Interstate 80 is a reminder that our city is rapidly approaching a moment of truth.  A vote on a new arena and accompanying development is likely next spring.

* Ben Nelson says he’s not ready to support a trade agreement with South Korea “until they open up trade for U.S. beef.”

* Jack McBride, dreamer and doer.

* Uh, hot and humid, must be time for football in Lincoln to begin.

Reach Don Walton at 473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com.