Boston Globe Editorial - Asian lessons for Bush

Boston Globe Editorial - Asian lessons for Bush
Copyright by The Boston Globe
Published: November 21, 2006


There is an old story, perhaps apocryphal, about a Hollywood mogul negotiating with George Bernard Shaw to buy the movie rights to one of the playwright's theater works. After some time, Shaw told the studio boss, "Sir, I am afraid there can be no commerce between us, since you seem to want to talk only about art and I only about money."

Shaw's witticism could be applied to President George W. Bush's performance at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting last weekend in Hanoi, where he wanted to talk about North Korean nuclear weapons and the other 21 leaders wanted to talk about expanding free trade.

If there was one benefit from Bush's exposure to his Pacific Rim counterparts, it was that he had a chance to hear directly from some of them what they thought of his misguided efforts to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons without making the North's "Dear Leader," Kim Jong Il, the offer he would not want to refuse.

Bush had lobbied for a formal written statement from APEC backing his tough sanctions strategy to force North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons. Failing to obtain agreement, much less unanimity, on such a text, he had to settle for a face-saving consolation prize: President Nguyen Minh Triet of Vietnam made a statement to reporters in Hanoi expressing concern about North Korea.

Bush, however, did tell President Hu Jintao of China that the United States is prepared to declare an official end of the Korean War, which concluded 56 years ago with a mere cease-fire. The offer could be a step in the direction of the security assurances and normalized relations that North Korea has been seeking from Washington.

For most of the other APEC leaders, however, the real business of the meeting was business. Their key agreement was on a proposal to reduce agricultural subsidies and tariffs if the European Union, India and Brazil are willing to do the same. This was an attempt to revive suspended negotiations on a global free trade agreement under the auspices of the Word Trade Organization.

If the EU, India, and Brazil remain recalcitrant, the APEC leaders - who represent 60 percent of the world's economy - said they would consider forming their own Pacific Rim free-trade area. Bush signed on to this stratagem to avoid being excluded from a free-trade agreement that China has been seeking with the vibrant economies of Southeast Asia.

In Hanoi, of all places, Bush received a much-needed lesson about free-market priorities from Asian leaders. They are traveling fast down the capitalist road and don't want to be thrown off course by an American president who lacks the savoir faire to buy off a tin-pot dictator trying to sell his nuclear bombs and missiles for the right price.