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The Bush administration will continue in 2004 to build on its trade accomplishments by promoting an "active and comprehensive" trade liberalization agenda, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) says. By pursuing multiple free trade initiatives, the United States is creating a "competition for liberalization" that provides leverage for greater openness in all negotiations, establishes models that can be used more broadly and gives free trade a "fresh" political impetus, Robert Zoellick said in an overview of the administration's 2004 Trade Policy Agenda, which was sent March 1 to Congress accompanied by the 2003 report on trade agreements.
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Addressing the special needs of developing countries, Zoellick said that the United States -- already the largest single-country donor of trade-related technical assistance -- will continue to aid the developing world in boosting its trade capacity and integrating trade into development strategies.

Free trade bump.

Robert Zoellick said in an overview of the administration's 2004 Trade Policy Agenda, which was sent March 1 to Congress..

Only in the Federal government do you send your agenda for approval when the year is already almost a quarter over. These inept fools make me laugh.

Since China joined the WTO, it has become America's sixth-largest export market. U.S. exports to China grew 75 percent over the last three years,

Robert doesn't give you the raw numbers and instead relies on trickery to make you think things are grand.

China's large installment purchases of billions of dollars of U.S. products --including soybeans, cotton, and manufactured goods -- during recent purchasing missions bode well for 2004.

While Robert cheers that they might purchase 1% (in dollars) of their trade deficit with us, I have to wonder how much of what they're buying was originally made in China. That and what politically connected donors are getting their goods bought.

The Chile and Singapore FTAs, which Congress approved in 2003, use innovative new mechanisms to meet the labor and environmental objectives set out by Congress in the Trade Act of 2002.

Laying off thousands of Carrier employees and setting up a plant in Signapore a couple months after this was signed is now called "innovative"?

It is a vision of a world in which a working family can save money on everyday household items because trade agreements have cut hidden import taxes.

Give me a break. Robert Zoellick's "vision" is for the US to become a nation of brokers, which I can't see as sustatinable.

It is a vision of a world in which a working family can save money on everyday household items because trade agreements have cut hidden import taxes. It is a vision of a world in which a New York stockbroker, an Ohio autoworker, or a Mississippi chicken farmer can access markets in Costa Rica or Australia as easily as in California or Alabama. It is a vision of a world in which free trade opens minds as it opens markets, encouraging democracy and greater tolerance. And it is a vision of a world in which hundreds of millions of people are lifted from poverty through economic growth fueled by trade.

We're doing it for our kids.

The Bush administration will continue in 2004 to build on its trade accomplishments ...

Really, I doubt that anyone could dispute that Bush has made some extremely significant trade accomplishments. Continuing to build on then might be cause for great concern for many of us though.