President Bush is a free trader through and through.

Or at least until he gets to the steel states, anyway. At that point, President Bush becomes a cold-rolled protectionist.

Such a bipolar position defies nature. So it's a curiosity--and a litmus test--to see an outside player force Bush's stances into direct conflict.

That's exactly what the World Trade Organization did last week. It ruled that Bush's 30 percent tariffs on imported steel couldn't stand. They violate international trade rules.

The ruling should have set off an internal wrestling match between the two sides of George Bush. But it didn't. The president's trade experts immediately vowed to appeal.

In the internal struggle for control of George Bush's trade agenda, there is no struggle. The Protectionist President has the upper hand.

It should have gone the other way.

There is much to lose by defending steel tariffs. This country's high-handed stance on other key trade issues, such as European agricultural subsidies, is weakened by our protectionist posture on steel.

And now that the U.S. is defying a WTO order, it is undermining the organization at a time when the WTO needs shoring up.

The trade organization's future is at stake in a key meeting set for September in Cancun, Mexico. If the Cancun talks fall apart, if the WTO suffers another protest-addled meltdown like the one that upended its Seattle meeting in 1999, then the rules-based system of international trade could collapse.

WTO critics would say good riddance. They would be loud. And they would be wrong.

The World Trade Organization has its faults. It is too secretive. It is part of a supernational power structure that makes many people wary, particularly in these don't-tread-on-me United States.

But the WTO still does more good than harm. It has made regions such as Europe and giant countries such as China more accountable for their actions. It has made the mighty U.S. more answerable to outsiders, too.

In short, the WTO helps create a more level trading field. And a system that seems fairer tends to invite more players at all levels of the trade game. The global trade pie grows.

In standing up to the WTO on the steel ruling President Bush is picking the wrong issue at the wrong time.

The steel tariffs were a bad idea in the first place.

They sought to protect an industry where overcapacity and inefficiencies demanded structural reform. They hurt carmakers, appliance-makers and even steel companies that rely on inexpensive imported steel to keep their costs down.

In the end, the industry's economics were so far gone that even Bush's big tariffs couldn't fend off the inevitable.

In the 16 months since the tariffs were imposed, a wave of bankruptcies has continued, and giants International Steel Group, Nucor Corp. and U.S. Steel have carried out major consolidation plans. They have gobbled up the likes of Bethlehem Steel, the idled LTV Corp. and National Steel.

Consolidation would have come even more aggressively if the trade barriers had not been in effect. Weaker players would have been forced to face up to economics rather than being propped up by Bush's protectionist tariffs.

"This is the first time a restructuring of this magnitude has happened," says Dan Ikenson, of the free-trade-oriented Cato Institute. "But the tariffs made it more difficult to restructure, not easier."

Consolidation isn't painless.

The industry employs nearly 50,000 fewer steelworkers than it did five years ago. Pension obligations owed to as many as 200,000 retirees have been foisted upon the government's Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp.

But the jobs that remain are stronger and more promising thanks to the jobs that were lost.

To the extent that the Bush tariffs keep jobs in the market that don't belong there, they simply prolong the pain for companies that ultimately have no future and for workers earning pensions that ultimately may not pay off.

It may be politically expedient for President Bush to defend his steel tariffs. But for the good of free trade and the health of the American steel industry, it's still the wrong thing to do.