More Protectionism

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration, in a further escalation of trade tensions between the United States and China, announced Tuesday it had decided to impose quotas on three types of textile products in an effort to give the U.S. textile industry temporary breathing room from a flood of Chinese imports.
-From the Times

Isn't the US trying to get China to reign in North Korea and end that country's nuclear weapons program? It would seem barring some of their goods from the American market might be a bad idea given that fact. The again, what do I know? I always thought national security and high stakes dipolomacy came before shameless efforts to win the votes of textile workers and the backing of clothing makers, but if Karl Rove thinks this the right move, who am I to say it isn't.