Exports in sectors that have been the object of bilateral agreements are up by 85 percent. Most economists would say that sustained trade deficits with Japan are necessary to finance the Japanese purchases of U.S. Treasury securities that have kept the federal budget deficits that Bob Dole created as Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee from having even more destructive consequences for the American economy. If negotiated solutions are not reached, swift action under existing U.S. trade laws will be required. Russia is a struggling democracy, for which we should wish peace so that they can attempt the arduous task of domestic political and economic reconstruction. Just because Republican politicians would rather not think about the possibility of global climate change under the impact of human industrial civilization does not mean that it may not become the important issue of the second half of the twenty-first century.
China holds immense promise as a market for U.S. goods, services and agricultural products.
But China is mortgaging that promise through protectionist policies.