Key lawmakers, including Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, criticized the Bush administration Wednesday for increased exports to Iran despite tough talk about its nuclear ambitions and meddling in Iraq.

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that the value of U.S. exports to Iran has grown significantly during President Bush’s years in office — from about $8 million in 2001 to nearly $150 million last year. The exports, made under agricultural, medical and humanitarian exemptions to U.S. trade sanctions, included cigarettes, bull semen, corn, soybeans and medicine, among other goods.

The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Howard Berman, remarked on the growth in U.S. trade during comments on the European Union’s recent move to toughen financial sanctions on Iran.

“It’s time for them to take far more significant steps along the lines of cutting off all significant commerce with Iran, as we did years ago — or at least I thought we did. I’m not so sure, after yesterday’s Associated Press report that U.S. exports to Iran have increased nearly twenty-fold during the Bush administration years, up to nearly $150 million in 2007,” Berman, D-Calif., said at a committee hearing Wednesday.

But I thought we were cutting therm off from the outside world.  Apparently I missed something in the news and in the analysis.