There’s nothing I like more than a good annual tradition. And here at the State of Trade blog, there’s one tradition that we look forward to every year more than any other: the end-of-year recap of the top blog posts of the past year. I know it’s hard to believe that it’s already the end of 2012…wasn’t it only yesterday that we were just starting to discuss the need to pass a re-authorization of the Export Import Bank and debating whether or not Congress would be able to agree on a bipartisan transportation bill? Ah, the memories.
2012 was a great year: for trade, for trade policy and (most importantly?) for trade policy blogging. I know that most of you do a weekly review of your favorite State of Trade blog posts, lovingly reading each one as if for the first time. But, as a holiday gift to you, your faithful State of Trade blog has strategically read each post from 2012 and summarized for your reading pleasure the top ten.
Here they are, without further ado:
10) Parsing the NYT’s Apple Outsourcing Article: Cementing the iPhone as the go-to example of the cost-benefit analysis of global supply chains.
9) Washington Needs an NBA Team to be Competitive in International Trade: In which I don’t endorse the current proposed Seattle arena location, but do give some love to the local basketball lovers.
8) Invest in Washington! (Everyone else already does): Speaking of giving love, here’s some props to the Trade Development Alliance for the creation of a really cool map.
7) TIE: A New Voice In the State of Trade and Introducing Ashley Dutta (And Thoughts on US-India Trade): Thanks to Pradnya Desh of Desh International Law and WCIT’s own Ashley Dutta for their contributions this year!
6) Could Panama Canal Expansion Be A Good Thing For Puget Sound Ports?: Probably not. But you never know!
5) The Role of Local Governments in Supporting International Trade: Sure, WCIT spends most of our time at the federal level, but don’t think we’ve forgotten about you, local government!
4) Nobody Cares About the Port (Or Do They?): In which I point out one of the ways that our region is better than New York.
3) What I Learned At the Port of Savannah: In which I point out several ways that our region isn’t better than Savannah.
2) The Import-ance of Import-ing, Part 3: The third entry in a continuing series (expect more in 2013) articulating the net benefits of imports to Washington’s trade economy.
And the winner of the 2012 State of Trade blog post goes to…
1) The entire Getting to Know the International Competitiveness Strategy for Washington State Series of Blog Posts series: Famous for its acronym alone (GTKTICSFWSSBP), this series on the International Competitiveness Strategy included such classics as Life Gets Better at Forty (Percent) and To Serv(ice export to) Man.
There you have it, ladies and germs. A great year for WCIT and our trade policy communications, all summarized in ten blog posts. Looking forward to more great blog post in 2013, and a year of working collaboratively on behalf of Washington businesses to ensure that trade policy has maximum benefit to their success in the global marketplace.
Happy holidays to all, and see you in the new year!