trade and human rights blog 2

In today's Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/20/AR2005062001177.html
EJ Dionne writes about Vice President Cheney's hypocracy regarding human rights. He notes that Cheney criticized President Putin of Russia but buddied upt to President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazahstan, who is equally undemocratic and repressive. Dionne notes that he recognizes that "foreign relations is a complicated business and the United States often has to work with unsavory regimes."

But Undersecretary Zoellick has posited a new paradigm for prodding such "unsavory regimes." Zoellick will testify tommorow at House International relations on how to encourage China to be a "responsible stakeholder in the global community." We'll be back to you tommorow about how this new paradigm might be applied to other nations such as Russia.

US policymakers need to remember that they can use the incentive of WTO membership to encourage Russia to move in a more positive direction.


Till then....
SA