Free Trade Is Vital Component
Of Campaign Against Terrorism

(Editor's note: Dean Kleckner was president of the American Farm Bureau Federation from 1986 to 2000. He currently serves as chairman of Truth About Trade And Technology, an Iowa-based organization of farmers and agricultural leaders dedicated to promoting freer trade and biotechnology advancement.)

When terrorists struck against our country on September 11, they picked for their targets two of America's most visible symbols. The Pentagon is a projection of our military prowess and the World Trade Center was a sign of our financial posperity. Together, they represented American’s willingness to defend liberty at home and spread it around the globe. That’s just one of the reasons why so many people have called these terrorist massacres an attack on freedom itself.

The war against terrorism — now that we’re really serious about it — must proceed on many fronts. We will no doubt unleash the might of the Pentagon against people and governments who made possible this evil.

This is a necessary step, but it is not the only way to fight terrorism. In addition to a military response, we should unleash the power of capitalism. Terrorists may have destroyed the World Trade Center — but they cannot destroy world trade itself. Now is the time to advance a forceful agenda on international trade, if only to show these murderers that they won’t frighten us into a shell of economic isolationism.

Symbolism is important, but a strong pro-trade agenda is about more than symbolism, too. Earlier this year, President Bush called free trade "a moral imperative." He wasn’t talking about dollars and cents — even though just about everybody agrees that international trade increases the material well-being of every country it touches. Instead, he meant that trade is a tool for promoting democracy in countries that don’t know it and an instrument for enhancing human rights and political freedom in places where they’re not currently appreciated.

If we’re going to fight terrorism seriously, then we must develop long-term strategies for eliminating the conditions that have allowed it to thrive in the first place. Military activity is fundamental to this goal, but free trade can play a significant role, too. It will help countries that now tolerate terrorism to build the institutions that undercut violent fanaticism. Respect for private property, a robust middle class, and a greater awareness of the outside world — all products of free trade — are essential ingredients in this task.

There’s one thing Congress can do right now to begin this campaign: pass Trade Promotion Authority, which would give the president the ability to negotiate complicated trade deals with other countries and submit them to Congress for an up-or-down vote. It is a power every president since Gerald Ford has enjoyed, though it lapsed under Bill Clinton’s watch seven years ago.

Since then, the United States has sat on the sidelines as other countries have brokered trade pacts that put American companies and workers at a disadvantage. World leaders simply won’t negotiate with the United States as long as they know trade deals can suffer a death-by-amendment from politicians beholden to special interests. This should concern us strictly for commercial reasons — though in the wake of September 11, it should compel us for moral ones, too.

No country but the United States has the standing to lead the planet toward greater freedom through international trade. And yet American’s hands are tied as long as the president’s hands are tied. Just as Congress has granted the commander-in-chief the authority to send troops into battle to defend the country against terrorism, it must now grant him the authority to enter trade talks whose successful outcome will dampen the terrorist impulse.

Our new war against terrorism won’t end anytime soon. Like the "war on poverty" and the "war on drugs," it will drag on for many years — for as long, in fact, as there are people in the world who hate freedom. Identifying particular terrorists now and rendering them unable to hit America again is only a small piece of a very large puzzle. Free trade can make a vital contribution to the same effort — and it shouldn’t be ignored as one of the most powerful weapons we have in our war against terrorism.