Few would dispute the importance of maintaining good relations between Bermuda and the United States.

The US is the Island's largest trading partner, a major market for the Island's financial services industry and the major source of the Island's visitors.

With ties dating back to 1609, Bermudians enjoy close relations with the US for education, business and families. The US is also, unquestionably, the strongest cultural influence on the Island.

What does Bermuda offer in return? The international business sector, and especially reinsurers, are critically important to the US, especially when catastrophes strike.

The Island is no longer as strategically important as it was when it had bases here in the Cold War, but the benefits of having a friend 700 miles off the East Coast should not be discounted, especially when some countries in the hemisphere, and especially in Latin America, have taken a less friendly position in recent years.

So the visit by Premier Dr. Ewart Brown and US Consul General Gregory Slayton to Washington, DC next week when they will meet President George W. Bush is important and worthwhile.

Further meetings with leading legislators and Administration officials may be more critical, since the nitty gritty of tax policy and the like will tend to be dealt with at that level.

Having said that, and without diminishing the importance of any meeting with an incumbent President, it is dubious whether the meeting with President Bush will bring about any concrete achievements, given his effective lame duck status and the gridlock that now exists between the Republican White House and the Democratic Congress.

That's why it is disappointing that there will be no meetings with either of the major party candidates in November's Presidential election. The good news is that Republican nominee Sen. John McCain has already laid out his position with regard to Bermuda and the tax questions that are always high on the political radar.

The position of Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, is much less clear. He is one of the sponsors of the "Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act", which names Bermuda on a list of jurisdictions taken from Internal Revenue Service court filings identified as "probable locations for US tax evasion".

And he has made clear that he wants to reduce "loopholes" in order to fund a middle class tax cut. How much of that is domestic rhetoric as opposed to legislative reality is difficult to know, but it is important that Bermuda makes its case to Sen. Obama's campaign.

It is fair to say that Sen. Obama's record has tended to be much more incremental than his rhetoric would suggest, and there is no doubt that easy promises on the campaign trail become much harder to fulfil once a President is engaged in the hard work of moving the Congress and the federal bureaucracy.

Nonetheless, there is no room for complacency. The irony of US politics is that many Bermudians, and this is more true in this election than any other, are predisposed to support the Democratic candidate. But the hard truth is that Republicans have generally been friendlier to Bermuda and more supportive of free trade and tax competition than Democrats. Bermuda will have to weigh where its interests lie.

One surprising omission, especially given the critical importance of international business for this trip, is the absence of Finance Minister Paula Cox from the delegation. One would have thought that it would have been wise for Ms Cox to bring her expertise to the table, especially as Dr. Brown admits that the economy is not his strong point. It's not too late to put the Finance Minister – who has her own connections in Washington – on the plane.