This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, January 3rd, 2013. I'm Caleb Brown.

Presidential's second terms aren't typically very good for free trade.

Dan Eekinson, director of the Cato Institute's Trade Policy Studies,

evaluates some of what should be on the agenda for President Obama's second term.

What evidence do we have about presidents entering second terms

and what their records are with respect to trade?

You know, Bush had a much more difficult time,

his second term than his first.

He started to face opposition primarily because,

you know, the Democrats took control of the Congress in 2006 and took the trade agenda off track.

You know, the first Bush term was committed to trade liberalization, pursuing multilateral,

regional, and bilateral agreements.

The second term was marred, particularly after the midterm election in the second term

when the Democrats took control of Congress.

They decided to shift the emphasis away from negotiation, liberalization, cooperation, and refocus it on enforcement.

And so for the past few years, and certainly that has been the driving force

behind the Obama administration's trade policy.

Enforcement has been the primary emphasis.

As we're starting the second term of the Obama administration, the trade agenda looks to be getting back on track in the sense

that we are liberalization, cooperation again are coming into focus.

The Obama administration has set as a deadline October 2013 to

conclude the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations which have been going on for a few

...