Passport

Roquefort war update

I’m glad to see my employers at the Washington Post are finally giving the world’s most entertaining ongoing international trade dispute the front page treatment it deserves. (Even if they did basically steal Passport‘s oh-so-clever headline.) The U.S. wine-and-cheese crowd is starting to grumble about George W. Bush’s last-minute 300 percent tariff increase that will ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
589025_090129_roquefort25.jpg
589025_090129_roquefort25.jpg

I'm glad to see my employers at the Washington Post are finally giving the world's most entertaining ongoing international trade dispute the front page treatment it deserves. (Even if they did basically steal Passport's oh-so-clever headline.)

I’m glad to see my employers at the Washington Post are finally giving the world’s most entertaining ongoing international trade dispute the front page treatment it deserves. (Even if they did basically steal Passport‘s oh-so-clever headline.)

The U.S. wine-and-cheese crowd is starting to grumble about George W. Bush’s last-minute 300 percent tariff increase that will constitute an effective ban on French roquefort cheese. It’s unclear what the president plans to do about the tariff — particularly since the EU refuses to back down on the U.S. beef ban the precipitated the action against roquefort — though Obama has promised a review of all of Bush’s last-minute policy changes.

Moldy cheese lovers will likely have to wait until Obama’s trade representative Ron Kirk is confirmed by the senate.

Photo: REMY GABALDA/AFP/Getty Images

Joshua Keating is a former associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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