Interpublic's Barbour Griffith & Rogers has signed a $30K a-month contract with the Embassy of Bolivia to deal with tactical planning, trade and appropriations matters.

Haley Barbour, the former Republican National Committee chairman, is leading the team that includes Keith Schuette, a former president of the International Republican Institute and State Dept. staffer, and Scott Barnhart, who was legislative aide to ex-Fla. Republican Sen. Connie Mack.

Bolivia scored a coup on the trade front as Congress agreed to reduce tariffs on canned tuna, textiles and cut flowers to encourage it, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to fight the drug trade.

That tariff cut, according to a Dow Jones report, has major tuna U.S. exporters Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia hopping mad.

Former Philippine president Fidel Ramos predicts the reduced tariffs for the Andean nations will wipe out his country's tuna industry, which is based on Mindanao island. He sees irony in the U.S. sending Special Forces to Mindanao to combat a Muslim separatist group, while the tariff cut effectively puts Muslim tuna fishermen out of work there.

BG&R reports to Alberto Valdez, Bolivia's Charge d'Affaires.

Bill Huey, Strategic Communications, Atlanta (6/7):
So are we winning the war on tunaism, or losing it? This week's ally is next week's member of the Axis of Evil, unless Haley Barbour is paid $30K a month to keep them straight.

I propose this: in order to focus more completely on the serious threats to this country, Congress and the White House should cut off all communication with lobbyists for the next two years. The nation and the world will be better off for it, and it might give campaign finance reform a chance to draw its first breath.