In a 63 to 31 vote, the United States Senate put its seal of approval on a free trade agreement with the Arabian Gulf state of Oman. The bipartisan Congressional vote ended months of contentious debate.

This trade pact with Oman will have very little economic impact in the United States. Trade between the U.S. and Oman is less than 1.2 billion dollars per year, but the agreement was seen as more of a symbolic gesture on behalf of the United States. According to the pact, the U.S. will immediately put an end to all duties that are attached to industrial and consumer goods that move between the United States and Oman. For their part, Oman will eliminate duties on almost 87% of U.S. agricultural imports and completely do away with tariffs within the next decade.

President Bush was obviously pleased with the outcome, citing both economic benefits from the pact as well and the national security implications "by strengthening our relations with a strategic friend and ally in the Middle East."

Democrats were critical of this move, citing environmental and workers' rights issues as reasons to condemn the pact. Ironically, the same Democrats who criticized this move overwhelmingly supported bestowing on China's Most Favored Nation status, despite human rights violations by the communist regime and the impact on workers in the U.S. by opening a window to cheaper sources of labor.