Britain's commercial diplomacy is an integral part of foreign policy based on our economic interests and values.

"If America can exercise effective commercial diplomacy, its authority and leverage will be much more substantial, not just in the economic realm, but across the board."

"In the way we once knew it, commercial diplomacy is nearly dead," he said.

The other problem with commercial diplomacy viewed at the ground level is that it can be excruciatingly boring.

"American products have been a new approach to bridge the gap between the cultures - a kind of commercial diplomacy."

But critics say the Clinton Administration's "commercial diplomacy" is merely a choice of economics over human rights.

What was once a vigorous approach to commercial diplomacy has been eviscerated.

So has the term "commercial diplomacy," once used to describe how increased economic engagement with China would strengthen ties in other arenas.

For most countries, the art of commercial diplomacy is to get out and tell your story.

But in the end President Clinton, the man who has repeatedly made commercial diplomacy the centerpiece of his foreign policy, backed away.