Bush bends to WTO ruling.

In "WTO Dictating U.S. Trade Policy" in our December I issue, THE NEW AMERICAN stated that President Bush would likely abide by the World Trade Organization's edict that his steel tariffs violate WTO rules. Summarizing the real issue, we asked: "Will President Bush continue to kowtow to the demands of internationalist insiders by sacrificing American sovereignty at every opportunity, or will he reassert American independence and move to withdraw the United States from the United Nations, the WTO, the FTAA, and all the other sovereignty-snuffing international organizations we're entangled with?" And we opined: "If the past is prelude, Mr. Bush, who has a long record of enthusiastic support for the entire modern international system, is unlikely to abandon the WTO."

True to form, Mr. Bush did not abandon the WTO, announcing on December 4 that he was ending the steel tariffs he had imposed in March 2002. In so doing he strengthened the WTO. As the New York Times noted after the announcement: "So while the White House was loath to say so, Mr. Bush's decision to comply fully with the ruling helped establish the trade organization's authority, showing that even the world's largest economic power, and the nation that spurred its creation, had to bend to its rulings."