Bush Sends Annual Trade Report to Congress

President Bush on Monday delivered his administration’s Annual Trade Report (.pdf) to Congress.

The report highlights the Bush administration's accomplishments during 2007 in development of new international trade markets, implementation of new free trade policies and enforcement of existing free trade agreements (FTAs) between the U.S. and its international trading partners.

"Through negotiations for reciprocal access bilaterally, regionally, and multilaterally - and tough enforcement to ensure that our trading partners must keep their promises of open markets - the past seven years have reaped record exports, job creation, growth, and productivity," said U.S. Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab in a related press release.

Highlighted in the report are the administration’s efforts in concluding the Doha Development Agenda, acknowledged by President Bush to be the nation’s top international trade priority, and the upcoming conclusion of the Korea-U.S. (KORUS) FTA, considered the most commercially important trade agreement negotiated by the U.S. in the last 15 years.

The U.S. is currently party to FTA’s with 20 other countries. "These agreements bring real benefits to American workers, farmers, ranchers, manufacturers and service providers," wrote trade Ambassador Schwab in the report’s introduction.

Also See:
Pros & Cons of Free Trade Agreements (Liberal Politics)
Globalization: What Is It? (US Foreign Policy)
Globalization: Good or Bad? (US Foreign Policy)