President Obama?s focus on boosting exports ? through a government-run National Export Initiative, of course ? draws scrutiny from Time International editor Michael Elliott in the latest issue of Fortune:

Politicians love talking about boosting exports; it sounds macho. But in the long run, it isn’t exports that matter; it is trade, which is something different.

In 1817 the British political economist David Ricardo coined the theory of comparative advantage, explaining how encouraging economies to specialize in what they do best and trade for the rest raises total output and welfare. After nearly 200 years Ricardo’s basic tenet still holds. More than that: When you think of what really contributes to human happiness, it is imports, not exports, that count.

The whole point of trade is that it lets you enjoy goods and services you wouldn’t otherwise see. But you never catch a U.S. politician admitting what we all know: that imports make everyone’s life better.

Obama hasn’t so far. Nor has he said much at all about trade as a whole, beyond committing himself to “work toward” an agreement on the stalled Doha round of world trade talks, and to move forward with those free-trade agreements the U.S. has already negotiated with South Korea, Panama, and Colombia. (Don’t hold your breath.)

Roy Cordato also has taken the president to task for his focus on exports:

Of course our exporting industries cannot sell anything that foreign consumers aren’t willing to buy. So how do we insure that products made in the US are competitive in foreign markets? Well it appears that Obama’s plan is to continue the Fed’s inflationary weak dollar policy. ? The weaker the dollar is against foreign currencies, the cheaper US goods are in foreign markets. It is in essence a subsidy to foreign consumers paid for with a tax on American consumers. This is because the weaker dollar makes imports, and therefore the American made products that compete with them, more expensive to Americans. It lowers the cost of living for foreigners and raises the cost of living for Americans.