Free Trade

This seems promising:

Trade ministers are "very close'' to agreeing on a plan to simplify global farm tariffs that would unlock World Trade Organization talks after the European Union presented a new proposal, the U.S.'s top trade negotiator said.

On the other hand there are worrisome developments on efforts to get CAFTA passed:

Costa Rica, the most-developed of the six nations that have signed the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the U.S., is balking at ratifying the accord. The country's parliament may not even vote on the pact until after the presidential election next February. The other Cafta nations are Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and the Dominican Republic.

:

The reluctance of Central America's oldest democracy has surprised the White House and undermines one of its chief arguments for the pact: that Cafta represents an urgently sought benefit for the impoverished region. Costa Rica's ambivalence and the long delay before it votes may influence undecided votes in Congress. The ambivalence already has allowed the opposition to the trade pact in Costa Rica to gain momentum."

:

If Cafta comes down to two or three votes [in the U.S. House of Representatives], which it very well might, people looking for an excuse not to vote for it might seize on the fact that Costa Rica is reluctant," says Rep. James Moran, a Virginia Democrat who supports the pact and flew to San Jose last week to lobby the government for Cafta.