NAM urges Obama to fight protectionism.

The Obama administration must make every effort to ensure that the government works for a global standstill on protectionist measures by Congress and by the major U.S. trading partners or the result will be "economic disaster."

In his keynote address to the first Journal of Commerce Exports Conference, Frank Vargo, vice president of international economic affairs for the National Association of Manufacturers, said the U.S. must also continue to negotiate bilateral free-trade agreements, which he called the "brightest part of our trade picture."

In the question-and-answer period that followed his address, Regina Vargo, Frank's wife and former assistant U.S. …