Bush Readies New Trade Push

The Bush administration is ramping up its pro-trade game in anticipation of the return of Congress.

President Bush stressed the need for Congress to pass three pending free trade agreements in a speech on rising economic uncertainty today in Chicago.

“It's in our interests that we open up markets.  It's in our interests that we demand people treat us the way we treat them in the marketplace,” Bush said, expressing confidence about the fates of those three deals – Colombia, Panama and South Korea – which are by no means assured an easy trip to either chamber’s floor.

Meanwhile, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab made the rounds at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where the Consumer Electronics Association has made international trade a key theme.

“We’re talking about the future of our country here,” CEA president and CEO Gary Shapiro told reporters in a conference call from Las Vegas.