CAFTA’s congressional fight was a lose-lose situation. Either protectionists would succeed in promoting a general anti-trade message or CAFTA proponents would successfully pass a preferential agreement that would further warp the global trading system and only benefit the US thanks to trade diversion.

I had difficulty evaluating which type of loss might be worse for free trade in the long run. I’m still uncertain, but CAFTA passed yesterday, by a vote of 217 to 215, thanks to a lot of horse-trading.