U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick shot off an angry letter April 19 to leading Democrats in the House who last week had written him railing against his laidback attitude to fighting unfair trade practices by countries such as India.

The letter to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Ways and Means Committee ranking member Charles Rangel (D-NY) et al said that fighting cases was not the only way to bring down trade barriers.

Zoellick charged the Democrats with espousing a “litigate-for litigations-sake approach that would not seem to serve America’s broader interests.”

The Democrats had moaned about the fact that the previous Clinton administration had pursued an average of 10 cases a year compared to the Bush administration’s measly three a year average. Pelosi and others had demanded Washington launch seven dispute cases against India, China, Japan and others.

Zoellick pointed out that in none of the cases cited by Democrats in their April 1 letter, had a U.S. company or its workers asked the Trade Rep to file a WTO case. “[It] would be highly unusual (and unprecedented) to bring a WTO case over the objections of Americans directly affected,” Zoellick said.

(Reported by Ela Dutt)