March 18, 2008 10:49AM # Tuesday Trade Links By [Sallie James](https://www.cato.org/people/sallie-james) --- SHARE A couple of interesting tidbits on trade: - Here’s a great [video](http://www.reason.tv/video/show/336.html) of our friend, Rep. Jeff Flake (R, AZ), speaking about the decades-long embargo on Cuba and restrictions on the freedom of Americans to travel there. Congressman Flake spoke at a Cato [event](http://www.freetrade.org/events/calendar07.html) (scroll to about half way down the page) on Capitol Hill last year along with Congressman Charlie Rangel (D, NY). Cato’s Center for Trade Policy Studies has [long](http://www.freetrade.org/node/433) [argued](http://www.freetrade.org/node/330) for an end to the failed embargo on Cuba. - The U.S. Department of Commerce yesterday [released](http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/international/transactions/2008/trans407.htm) the 2007 trade deficit figure: $738.6 billion or 5.3 percent of GDP. It will no doubt come as a relief to the current account deficit (CAD) hawks to know that the CAD is down 9 percent on 2006, primarily due to higher export earnings (thanks, cheaper dollar) and an economic slowdown. More on the link between economic growth and the deficit [here](http://www.freetrade.org/node/108). ##### Related Tags [Trade Policy](https://www.cato.org/trade-policy), [Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies](https://www.cato.org/herbert-stiefel-center-trade-policy-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).