The Bush team has agreed a free-trade deal with South Korea but also slapped tariffs on Chinese paper. Is America's trade policy going backwards or forwards?
Trade deals are often concluded at the eleventh hour. This week's bilateral agreement with South Korea came even closer to the wire. The negotiators inked an accord 25 minutes before George Bush lost the right to send Congress new trade deals under the fast-track rules that limit lawmakers' ability to amend them.
A close call, but for the White House a useful boost. After six years, Mr Bush's trade achievements are modest. The Doha round of global trade talks is floundering. Many of the dozen bilateral deals passed since 2000 are more about foreign policy than free trade. The biggest prize has been a regional pact with six small countries in Central America.
The South Korea agreement is a bigger deal. It would be the largest bilateral accord America has struck since NAFTA was passed in 1993, as well as the first with a large Asian economy. Though far inferior to a breakthrough in the Doha talks, the South Korea deal could shore up Mr Bush's free-trade record.
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