PRESIDENT BUSH may be interested in working out trade agreements with Middle Eastern countries that have so remained outside of the world trading system. He is, after all, a free-trader by instinct–with the occasional deviations resulting from overwhelming domestic political pressures. But his move to start discussions with Egypt and other pre-modern economies shouldn’t obscure two wars now raging in policy circles over the future of U.S. trade policy.

The first is between those free-traders who believe that bilateral deals–such as those recently reached between the United States and Singapore and the United States and Chile, and the agreement now being negotiated with Australia–contribute to the reduction of barriers to trade. The logic is straightforward: massive, multilateral deals are wonderful, but difficult to achieve. So on the half-a-loaf-is-better-than-none theory, let’s sit down with each of those countries interested in freer trade with America, and eliminate any barriers that exist.