When this kind of thing keeps happening:

The World Trade Organization has found that the United States failed to scrap a series of illegal subsidies paid to American cotton growers, a ruling that could open the door to billions of dollars' in Brazilian trade sanctions against the U.S., trade officials said Monday.

Let's face it, while agricultural trade is still completely screwed up, and with the U.S. and EU not fulfilling promises made way back in the mid-90s, things are not going to move forward with WTO/multilateral liberalization.

As calls for China to "open up markets" get more shrill as the U.S. election cycle comes around, the effectiveness of this kind of rhetoric lessens considerably when Beijing can point to cotton and other instances where the U.S. government is paying subsidies or engaged in other protectionist policies.

Needless to say, those who argue for protectionist measures as being supporters of "fair trade" are not going to get support from me unless they admit that other countries will also protect their markets in an escalation of anti-competitive practices. Not a good way to go.

You gotta practice what you preach.