They are sensible enough, though some, like a moratorium on bilateral trade deals, seem overly idealistic.
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An American government concentrating on bilateral trade deals and domestic politics bodes ill for the global economy.
Attention has therefore shifted, both to Doha and to bilateral trade deals between the United States and other Latin American groupings.
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In Washington, support is growing for rewarding countries supportive of America's military policies with bilateral trade deals instead of pursuing multilateral agreements.
Many bilateral trade deals offer favourable treatment to a few companies from a particular country at the expense of all the rest from elsewhere in the world.
Abandoning partners that buy half the country's exports would make it necessary to renegotiate dozens of bilateral trade deals, and the damage to British industry would be costly.
In the absence of progress on the Doha round, Vietnam is seeking bilateral and regional trade deals.
Many countries still pursue bilateral and regional trade deals, even though these are clearly inferior to global agreements, often diverting more trade than they create.
But that risks dissipating energy on easy bilateral deals, with dubious trade-enhancing impact, at the expense of tougher, but far more beneficial, multilateral negotiations.
That the White House sees little need for a heavyweight in the trade job suggests it is sceptical about the Doha round, reluctant to push controversial bilateral deals and in no mood to try to convince Congress to extend the Trade Promotion Authority, which expires in June 2007.
For a start, bilateral deals impose so much paperwork and bureaucracy on trade that companies rarely make use of their provisions.
America is pursuing a regional trade agreement for the Americas, has signed bilateral deals with Chile and Singapore, has begun bilateral talks with 14 other countries, and promises many more.
The United States is working on a Free-Trade Area of the Americas as well as a slew of bilateral deals.
The U.S. and EU have been focusing on bilateral deals with trading partners as it became clear that talks at the World Trade Organization on a global deal -- the Doha round -- were making little progress.
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