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.
Barack Obama says that the next president must develop a new approach to foreign relations. And so he has promised to invent one based on "aggressive personal diplomacy" with Iran and possible meetings with the despotic rulers of Cuba and Syria.