The British are coming! (to lobby for free trade)

A top British trade official landed in Atlanta this week to make the case for advancing the Doha round of international trade talks: A key round of global grade talks could help rebalance the world economy and boost GDP in the U.S. – and Georgia – if a deal can be struck by the end ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

A top British trade official landed in Atlanta this week to make the case for advancing the Doha round of international trade talks:

A top British trade official landed in Atlanta this week to make the case for advancing the Doha round of international trade talks:

A key round of global grade talks could help rebalance the world economy and boost GDP in the U.S. – and Georgia – if a deal can be struck by the end of the year.

That was the pitch from U.K. trade director David Frost, who flew into Atlanta Feb. 14 to meet with business leaders and help promote the Doha Development Agenda – a trade negotiation round led by the World Trade Organization. [snip]

A new report just issued by the British Embassy in Washington, DC through Trade Partnership Worldwide LLC, shows a breakdown of how a potential Doha deal would impact the U.S. and each state.

I can understand the U.K. lobbying Congress, the State Department, or the administration about trade policy. But isn’t it really the job of the Obama administration to be making the case for trade to the American public? And does it say something about the perceived willingness of U.S. leaders to make the case that the British feel compelled to do so on their own? 

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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