Hard Man in a Hot Seat.(Brief Article)

Robert Zoellick was never one to mince words. After wild protests broke up the World Trade Organization talks in Seattle, he accused President Clinton of pandering to the protesters. On trade, he wrote, Clinton has "straddled and stumbled, and others have gotten hurt." In a Washington debate last spring, he opined that "everybody in this room knows" Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has "been discounted in terms of power and in terms of trust and influence." But the longtime Beltway insider knew when to tone it down. During his confirmation hearings last week as U.S. trade representative, he spoke of protecting American workers and promised to "build a new consensus."

The question is which Zoellick will take charge, after his expected confirmation this week. The "battle in Seattle" of December 1999 derailed decades of work toward lowering global-trade barriers, leaving the WTO in disarray. Europe, Asia and Latin America now look to the new U.S. trade rep to clean up the mess and answer their myriad complaints. Europe and the United States are engaged in battles over planes, bananas and beef, and Europe fears the Texan president's ties to Latin America could promote a divisive trend toward the establishment of regional trade blocs. Every major nation will remain skeptical of Bush administration promises until Congress gives up its power to rewrite trade deals. And Democrats in Congress are reluctant to cede that power without assurances that Bush will honor the Seattle agenda: that free- trade deals should require all nations to respect U.S. standards of environmental protection and labor rights. U.S. trade policy is paralyzed by these pressures. "We've lost the initiative on international trade," said Robert Hormats, a former trade official in the Carter and Reagan administrations. "We've been basically sitting on the sidelines."

Zoellick, 47, is walking into a rough job at a tough time. A former high-ranking official at State, Treasury and the White House under Ronald Reagan and George Bush Senior, he has been here before. He was a key player in negotiations on German reunification, the U.S. savings and loan crisis, and peace in Nicaragua. He helped cut the North American Free Trade Agreement, and to create the WTO itself--and he's not shy about taking credit for it. ...