Free Trade Less Popular In US Than In Europe -Survey

Americans are becoming less likely than Europeans to favor free trade, foreign investment or immigration, according to a survey of opinion on both sides of the Atlantic, a break with stereotype that reflects growing unease and isolationism in the U.S. as the economy falters.

The survey, commissioned by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a think tank, and released Wednesday found that a growing number of people in the U.S. - 57%, up from 51% in 2005 - believe free trade costs more jobs than it creates. Europeans, meanwhile, have become less suspicious of trade's effects. Forty-six per cent of Europeans surveyed said trade costs jobs, down from 50% in 2005, the survey said.

Similarly, fewer Americans said they favored freer trade. While 60% of Americans said they thought trade should be more free, that compared with 69% in Europe. Americans also showed the strongest aversion to foreign companies investing in their economy, with 40% saying they opposed it, compared with 30% for Europe as a whole. U.S. support for the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, has also declined somewhat, to 60% from 64% last year.

Overall, a majority of Americans still support the principles of free trade and globalization, but that support is waning, according to the survey. Candidates for the Democratic Party's presidential election nomination have picked that theme up as they campaign ahead of the primaries. At the same time the survey found that Europe, often derided for its protectionist instincts and resistance to immigration, has become slightly more open. Those diverging trends may reflect simple economic circumstances. Europe's economy has been recovering lately from a long period of stagnation, while economic growth in the U.S. has been declining.

Peter Mandelson, the European Union's top trade negotiator commented on the U.S. trend in a speech Wednesday, at a seminar on globalization in Brussels. He described as 'a disappointing sign of the times' U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton's comments in a Financial Times interview this week, where she said that if elected president she would have to rethink the value of pursuing the so-called DOHA round of global free trade talks. She also talked up the need to protect U.S. businesses and jobs from free, but unfair trade.

Europe's relatively strong scores on openness to trade were more remarkable given that they were dragged down by severe skepticism in France. For example, only 37% of French people surveyed said they favored making trade more free, compared with 84% in the United Kingdom, 74% in Germany and 60% in the U.S.

On immigration too, the traditionally immigrant-friendly U.S. was less enthusiastic than the old world about the contribution immigrants make. Whereas 52% of Americans said they agreed immigrant workers contribute to high tech industries, the European average was 57%, and highest in Germany and the U.K., 74% and 68% respectively.

Despite those results, Americans said they felt less threatened by China economically than Europeans, with the exception of the British. On both sides of the Atlantic, 64% in the U.S. and 69% in Europe, solid majorities said they favored making trade between the U.S. and Europe easier.

'After more than five decades of robust trade and investment integration since World War II, Americans and Europeans see even further gains to be made by deepening the transatlantic marketplace,' said Craig Kennedy, president of the German Marshall Fund in a statement.

Releasing the survey, the German Marshall Fund also drew a link between fears of competition from China, immigration and trade-related job-losses on one side, and support for closer economic integration and trade between the U.S. and Europe on the other.

TNS Opinion polled 1000 people in each of seven countries for the survey, namely the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovakia and the United Kingdom. The poll was conducted Sept. 10-24. The maximum margin of error was +/-3 percentage points.

一项同时在大西洋两岸展开的调查显示，美国人在自由贸易、外商投资以及移民问题上的开放度还不及欧洲人，这不仅和人们原来的看法相悖，也表明在经济增长放缓的背景下，美国人的不安和孤立主义情绪正日渐升温。

该调查是由智囊机构German Marshall Fund of the United States发起的。根据周三发布的调查结果，57%的美国人认为自由贸易带来的失业多于就业，而2005年时仅有51%的美国人有此看法。与此同时，欧洲人对自由贸易力量的怀疑有所减弱，46%的欧洲人认为自由贸易造成了就业岗位流失，而2005年时50%的人抱有这种看法。

同样，美国人中认为应该进一步开放贸易的比例也低于欧洲人；60%的美国人认为贸易应该更加自由，但有69%的欧洲人持这种观点。美国人对外资投资本国公司也表现出了最强烈的抵 情绪，有40%的美国人对此表示反对，而整体而言欧洲人中仅有30%持这种看法。支持北美自由贸易协定(NAFTA)的美国人也从去年的64%降至60%。

调查显示，总的来说，多数美国人还是支持自由贸易和全球化原则的，不过他们的支持正越来越弱。参与竞争民主党总统候选人资格的人士在选战中纷纷将自由贸易和全球化问题拿来说事。这份调查还显示，常常因保护主义倾向和排斥移民而遭诟病的欧洲现在正在一点点变得更加开放了。这两种截然相反的趋势可能只是两地经济环境变化的一个映射。欧洲经济在经历了长期的不景气之后，近来正在持续复苏，而此时美国经济却开始放慢脚步。

欧盟(EU)贸易委员曼德尔森(Peter Mandelson)在布鲁塞尔的一个全球化研讨会上谈到了美国的现状。曼德尔森称，美国参议员希拉里•克林顿(Hillary Clinton)本周在接受英国《金融时报》(Financial Times)采访时的讲话透露出了令人失望的信号。希拉里称，如果她入主白宫，她将重新考虑世界贸易组织(WTO)多哈回合谈判到底有没有意义。她还指出，有必要保护美国的经济及就业不致受到自由但不公平的贸易行为的影响。

欧洲人在开放贸易意愿上能取得“高分”非比寻常，因为法国人在这一点上持有强烈的怀疑态度，拖累了整体调查结果。只有37%的受访法国人支持扩大贸易自由，而英国、德国和美国的比例分别是84%、74%和60%。

在移民问题上亦是如此。传统上来说美国人对移民较为友好，但现在他们对移民所做贡献的认可程度也不及欧洲人。52%的美国人表示，他们同意移民为高科技产业作出了贡献，而平均有57%的欧洲人认同这一点，排在前两位的是德国和英国，分别是74%和68%。

不过，对所谓来自中国的经济威胁，欧洲人（英国除外）却比美国人显得更紧张。针对欧美之间的贸易关系，大多数人（64%的美国人和69%的欧洲人）表示他们赞成创造更宽松的贸易环境。

GMF总裁克里格•肯尼迪(Craig Kennedy)在一份声明中表示，在第二次世界大战结束后的50多年时间里，欧美两地的贸易和投资一直表现活跃，现在大家都意识到，如能深化跨大西洋共同市场，人们将获益更多。

German Marshall Fund的这份调查一方面探讨了人们对来自中国的竞争、移民潮及因贸易引发的失业所抱有的担忧情绪，另一方面也谈到了人们对在欧美间建立更紧密的经贸往来的支持，并将这两方面联系了起来。

TNS Opinion在美国、法国、德国、英国、意大利、波兰和斯洛伐克等七国分别调查了1000人。该调查是在9月10-24日间进行的，调查结果的最大误差为正负3个百分点。

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