A couple of good moves by the Obama administration

From Greg Mankiw's blog I see that the Obama administration has made a couple of good moves on trade policy recently. Mankiw quotes Phil Levy

For the second time in a week, the Obama administration has discarded a major campaign pledge on international economic policy. In its decision last week not to name China a currency manipulator, and now to forswear renegotiation of NAFTA, the administration avoided two potentially costly mistakes.

Indeed, it has avoided two very costly mistakes. One of the biggest fears about the Obama administration was that, with regard to international economic policy, the President might actually follow through on his campaign rhetoric. That would have been a disaster, and so its good to see he isn't.