Last March, noted trade economist Jagdish Bhagwati suggested there were good reasons to believe that Barack Obama would be a fairly free trade president. Now, however, Bhagwati is concerned. He writes in yesterday's FT that any such optimism was an "illusion" and it is time to sound the alarm due to the poor free-trade credentials of his nominees and his relative silence on the importance of multilateral trade. If Bhagwati is correct, this is indeed cause for concern.