U.S. consumers will soon be paying more for tomatoes thanks to the Obama Administration’s new trade policy. Under a just-announced agreement with Mexico, Americans reportedly will be paying up to twice as much for tomatoes grown in Mexico. The increase is entirely due to minimum prices imposed by the Obama …
On February 8, the government will release data for 2012 imports and exports. This annual release often ignites a debate about trade policy. But among economists, there’s not much debate over the benefits of free trade. The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business regularly surveys economic experts. Last year, …
As President Obama crafts his 2013 trade agenda, he should look to the words of Ronald Reagan for inspiration: Free trade serves the cause of economic progress, and it serves the cause of world peace. When governments get too involved in trade, economic costs increase and political disputes multiply. Peace …
The latest trade deficit figures are out, and like always, most reporters fail to accurately explain what these numbers mean. During the past 10 years, there has been a clear relationship between trade deficits and U.S. economic growth. Most news coverage got the relationship backwards. Consider the following reports: “The …
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) announced today that imports and exports both declined in October while the overall trade deficit increased. Reactions to the BEA report were misleading. For example, the Associated Press reported: “A wider trade deficit acts as a drag on growth.” In fact, U.S. trade …
If Congress wants to create more jobs this holiday shopping season, it can start by eliminating many Depression-era tariffs on shoes. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 186,110 Americans work for shoe stores, an industry that generates $4.6 billion in annual wages. Many people who work for large department …
Senators Ben Cardin (D–MD) and Jon Kyl (R–AZ) have joined together to sponsor a modern piece of human rights legislation, the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act. The legislation is designed to punish gross violators of human rights while allowing the U.S. to extend permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) …
The recently concluded presidential campaign contained a substantial amount of China-bashing from two candidates fighting over who would be tougher on trade. In reality, getting tough on trade would mean getting tough on poor people and destroying U.S. jobs. A working paper from University of Chicago scholars Christian Broda and …
