United States: Free Trade Agreements and the Obama Administration

Malaysia announced Jan. 15 that the United States has delayed progress on a free trade agreement between the two countries, suspending talks until the end of 2009 at the earliest. The incoming Obama administration, with Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, has already given unmistakable signals of wanting to reassess and renegotiate a number of bilateral trade deals developed under the Bush administration. With the United States in the midst of a deep recession, protectionist tendencies in both the executive branch and the legislature are likely to flare.