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 …
Elected officials will face many contentious issues affecting economic and foreign policy during the upcoming lame-duck session of Congress and heading into 2013. However, one issue on which they should be able to work together is extending permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to Russia. Russia officially joined the World Trade …
The Obama Administration’s Commerce Department recently took a preliminary position in favor of ending a 16-year-old trade agreement governing tomatoes imported from Mexico. The Florida Tomato Exchange asked the Administration to end the agreement because it doesn’t want to compete with low-priced tomatoes grown in Mexico. This announcement took Mexico …
The Wall Street Journal recently highlighted another Washington regulation that is holding back the economy. But this one can’t be blamed on President Obama, because it was enacted over 90 years ago. The protectionist Jones Act requires shippers transporting goods between two points in the United States to use vessels …
The Obama Administration recently filed a case with the World Trade Organization, alleging that China provided at least $1 billion in subsidies to Chinese carmakers from 2009 to 2011. On the same day, The Wall Street Journal reported that if the government sold its 26.5 percent stake in General Motors, …
The federal government recently announced that it is expected to run a budget deficit of more than $1 trillion for the fourth straight year. One often-overlooked result of these large budget deficits is their negative impact on U.S. exporters. Sales of U.S. Treasury securities to foreigners are not counted as …
Earlier this year, over protests from the country’s communist party, Russia agreed to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). Now Congress is considering legislation that essentially says, “We want U.S. companies to benefit from the concessions Russia made to join the WTO.” This would be accomplished by ending application of …
