International trade is an economic and political issue, but little is said about products the U.S. imports. Most promoters of free trade talk about exports in detail and ignore import. Critics of trade talk in generalities about imports, but seldom mentioned which specific items they believe U.S. consumers should not be allowed to buy from sources outside the U.S.
The Bush Administration has released its seventh annual Trade Policy Agenda and Annual Report as required by the Trade Policy Act of 1974. The Administration has been active in trade policy, but there will be a huge unfinished agenda passed on to the new Administration in January 2009.
"The WTO has 152 member states and achieving consensus on hundreds of trade issues in the Doha Round of trade negotiations has proven to be difficult. India is a key part of the talks because of its population size, rapid economic growth and leadership role among developing countries. It must be a supporter of a final agreement. India was an active participant in the early years of the talks, but has been less involved over the past year.
"When the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) released its report on plantings of biotech crops around the world in 2007 (ISAAA Brief 37-2007: Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2007 at isaaa.org), increased plantings of 30 million acres from the 2006 level, an 11.9 percent increase, to 282.4 million acres grabbed most of the attention. Equally important are the growth in biotech crops with Òstacked traits,Ó plantings of biotech cotton in India, plantings by small and resource-poor farmers and further expansion of biotech crops.
"On February 8 Crawford Falconer, Chairman of the Agriculture Committee negotiations of the WTO Doha Round, released a comprehensive draft of the agricultural text. It is his assessment of what may be agreeable to member governments based on recent negotiations. The Chairman said there are no great surprises in the draft and noted that governments must make political choices to move the negotiations forward. Market forces are beginning to overtake the negotiations and may make them easier to conclude.