The decision of the House Democratic leadership to block a vote on the US-Colombia trade agreement is impossible to defend except on the narrowest political grounds. With both of the party’s presidential candidates opposed, and anti-trade demagoguery at the centre of their appeal to voters, the leadership in Congress could hardly do President George W. Bush’s bidding. Voting the deal down, on the other hand, might have required an explanation – not an easy thing to provide. Delay, which may serve in the end to kill the measure anyway, was the obvious response.

But be in no doubt, the failure to adopt this measure is economic and diplomatic nonsense. The US is open to Colombian imports under the terms of agreements in place for more than 10 years. The deal would make those agreements permanent (currently they must be periodically renewed), but the shock to the US economy of increased imports from this small country, such as it was, is already accommodated. The further lowering of barriers required by the deal is all on the Colombian side. Even the conventional mercantilist arithmetic says the Democrats’ manoeuvre is a bad mistake.