The South Korea trade agreement is on life support.  And the man that lead the negotiations is now leaving Susan Schwab's office for the private sector. 

Many of you probably know this, but it has not been prevalent in major news outlets.  China has banned U.S. beef since 2003.  All of it.  No singling out companies, types of beef, types of cattle.  All U.S. beef is banned.  This action predated the recent China safety concerns by a few years.

Why?  Because the U.S. has discovered three cases of mad cow disease (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE) within its borders.  One was in December 2003.  The cow was from Canada which has had scores of cases.  The other two cases were found in old cows, and the BSE type was "atypical".  Atypical BSE has never been found transferrable to humans.

So.  We have 3 BSE cases in beef, and they ban all U.S. beef.

They ship us millions of lead paint covered toys, loads of contaminated and poisonous seafood, melamine contaminated wheat gluten, salmonella contaminated seasonings for health snacks, .... and we still let it all in.

Maybe we just need to ban their products found unsafe. 

John Edwards told a New Hampshire audience, last week, that currency manipulation must be addressed in new trade agreements.  Yes, I know.  You say candidate statements mean nothing.  But getting these issues higher prominence is always good. 

Many powerful Dems in Congress want to foist trade agreements on us with so-called labor and environmental provisions in them.  Even if enforceable, no jobs, factories or farms would be saved.  Our trade imbalance would continue tanking.

Many powerful Republicans in Congress want to foist trade agreements on us without - in otherwords more of the same. 

Many newly elected Dems from November told Charlie Rangel that if they were made to vote for Fast Track, they would not be re-elected.

Duncan Hunter, Republican candidate for president, has been forceful on the currency manipulation issue.  It is a high priority issue for his campaign.  Obviously, Hunter has not caught on among the public and is a third tier candidate.

John Edwards' statement on the campaign trail is positive. 

China and other Southeast Asian countries agreed to increase product standards.  Good.  Less people will die.  That's what the headline of the linked article says.  But what does "increase" mean?  And what is a "product standard?" 

The announcement came from a multilateral meeting of Southeast Asian countries.  Why do they need multilateral meetings to do this?  They should do it on their own.  Indeed China is famous for saying "its an internal matter" when asked to do something.

Very specific words get very squishy meanings among government folks, especially when you are translating Mandarin Chinese to English.

“The ministers agreed to urge relevant government agencies to properly deal with product quality-related cases by strengthening consultations with the view to protecting the safety and health of consumers while not impeding bilateral trade and economic cooperation,” it said. (emphasis mine).

"Urge."  Southeast Asian governments are either communist or capitalist dictatorships.  They don't "urge" anything.

They will "urge" their agencies to "strengthen consultations."  OK.  What consultations and why?  "With a view" to protecting safety.   BUT "not impeding bilateral trade."  Ahh.  Don't interfere with trade, even if a bit of antifreeze chemicals are in a few shiploads of toothpaste. 

And their heart really does not seem to be in it.  Consider this comment, in the same article.

China’s commerce minister, Bo Xilai, defended the quality of Chinese goods, saying 99 percent of his country’s exports to the United States and Japan passed quality controls and adhered to global quality standards. 

Hmmm.  Recall that "99%" is about the percentage of Chinese imports that our FDA does NOT inspect. 

Do you know anybody that speaks many words but says nothing?  That seems to be what happened in the multi-lateral government meeting.  But it hit the New York Times, with a headline ("China agrees to raise product standards") that is misleading.