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Sam, thanks for doing this. It must be a combination of exhileration and exhaustion being involved in this task.

A question to your father, and a VERY important one: We know he wants to renogotiate the China trade deal (mercifully) and he is not a fan of CAFTA. But what is his stance on unfettered trade deals with good allies such as Canada, Britain, Australia, Japan, Poland, Denmark, Italy etc. Can he assure the skeptics that he is not a strident protectionist?

Dad's position is that trade deals esentially are business deals between nations. He feels that nations can be good friends and allies and still require a level playing field with respect to trading rules. Presently all the nations you mentioned have the right to rebate all taxes to thier exporters. However, under the deal we signed, America does not have the right to rebate taxes to our exporters. This amounts to an unfair advantage. My dad would require our allies to allow us the same favoarable tax treatment that they receive. This would do much to change the one-way street which produced a 804.9 billion dollar US. trade deficit last year. Thus, dad is for a two way street in trade, achieved by effective negotiaters.