WaPo sez do not big up yourself

I just subscribed to the Washington Post, after a dozen years in D.C., as part of my new year's resolution to "go native." So, I mostly read the Metro section.

But today I was unfortunate enough to look at the editorial page today, which I have resisted looking at ever since I worked on Latin America policy at CEPR. Here's the gross, in an editorial entitled "Obama Can't 'Buy American'":

"Buy American" sounds patriotic, but paying more than necessary for steel diverts resources that could create jobs in other industries. Worse, it raises the prospect of retaliation against American exporters by U.S. trading partners. The director-general of the European steel industry trade association already has threatened to take the United States before the World Trade Organization if the steel provision passes. (Notably, European stimulus programs do not bar U.S. steel or other products -- yet.) "Buy American" would violate the Nov. 15 G-20 joint declaration, which committed the United States to "refrain from raising new barriers to investment or trade in goods and services" until November 2009.

We pointed out the problems with this declaration back at the time of the G-20 meeting. Obama's going to have to crush that statement and forge a new path.