Excerpted from
As Governor, Palin Was Quiet on Many Key Issues
By WILLIAM YARDLEY, New York Times
Published: October 1, 2008

TRADE Ms. Palin does not appear to have made any trade missions since taking office, and former state officials said the state's trade staff had been reduced under her watch.

Alaska has also sharply reduced its role in the Northern Forum, an association of state and regional governments from countries including Canada, Russia, Japan and China that works on common issues in northern regions like economic development, flooding and global warming.

Under Mr. Murkowski, Ms. Palin's predecessor, the state sent senior administration officials to the forum's meetings and contributed $60,000 to $100,000 to the forum each year, according to the forum's executive director, Priscilla Wohl.

Under Ms. Palin, the state has reduced its spending to the base-level membership dues, $15,000, and the administration has not attended any forum meetings, including one last fall in Russia.

"Had she participated, in the last 18 months she would have met ambassadors, governors, heads of the European Union's programs, of United Nations programs," Ms. Wohl said.