THE amazing achievement of Barack Obama in winning the US presidential election will continue to glow for many months, through and beyond his formal inauguration in January.

However, in reality the honeymoon period for the new leadership will be quickly over.

The emphatic victory may buoy confidence the landscape for US politics and policy making will change, but it seems an each-way bet as to what Obama means for improving the fairness of trade between the US and the rest of the world.

There have been mixed messages that could be spun either way.

Analysts in the US have been pouring over Obama's past actions and stated positions on US trade policy.

It is unclear how much of what he said was campaign rhetoric, and how much is deeply held belief. In fact, there may be a bit of both.

Many take the view that, in trade terms, he is hardly the reformist we would like to think.

The strength of reality facing the US economy is he may be more supportive of reforms in the direction of increased protection rather than liberate trade.

Obama has made an early pledge to save the US middle classes. A large part of this will be focused on restoring and maintaining employment, which has been so badly affected by an out-of-control mortgage lending spree that was actually sparked by a law passed in the Clinton era.

Protection of risks to US jobs through trade deals has in the past been his platform, and this may be hard to change, despite his altruistic global visions.

Obama has raised US business community concerns by criticising Bush administration trade deals with Colombia and South Korea, the latter which Obama wants to revise, but in any event is yet to be ratified by the two countries.

But Obama was on such a political winner attacking as much of the Bush legacy as possible, it will be interesting to see what stays once the Obama Administration gets to work.

Obama has pledged to move ahead with the Doha round of world trade talks, but also to work to "strengthen labor and environmental protections" in the North American Free Trade Agreement.

He supports a Doha agreement that would increase US exports, support jobs in America, strengthen a rules-based multilateral system, and advance development of the world's poorest countries.

Not all those outcomes are achievable in the one package, unless there is plenty of compromise - but that is now a certainty if any form of a Doha agreement is to be achieved.

One of the comforting agendas that may sway the role Obama takes in changing world trade is his strong commitment to improving how the world sees the US.

Obama gives the greatest encouragement to those inside and outside the US by talking of the need to re-earn respect for his country from the rest of the world, following years of disastrous foreign and trade policy stands by his predecessor.

Treatment of the developing world through the massive trade influence of the US is one of the central issues in that agenda, besides dealing with the fall-out from a few bad wars and the rest of its poor foreign policy.