Free trade for carrots!

Published February 1, 2008 5:00am ET



You can always expect a few standard things at the Wednesday meeting of Grover Norquist at Americans for Tax Reform: bagels, coffee and lots of tax-cutting talk.

But carrots?


Chris Padilla
, the Commerce Department’s undersecretary for international trade, decided to display a bag of baby carrots — among other Colombian products — and hand them out to attendees, all as a way of explaining the benefits of free trade. Padilla has been pushing for passage of free-trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.

“I’ll stick with my Colombian coffee,” joked one attendee, upon grabbing a bag of carrots.

Perhaps next week, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson could drum up support for the president’s economic stimulus plan by bringing cold, hard cash.