Toyota recently announced it will begin exporting U.S.-built Camry cars and Sienna minivans to South Korea from plants located in Kentucky and Indiana. The cars will be shipped through the Port of Hueneme—ironically, one of the California ports that Occupy Wall Street protestors recently attempted to shut down. Some people may wonder why Toyota would ship U.S.-built cars 7,000 miles to South Korea instead of shipping Japanese-built cars 130 miles across the Korean Strait. One reason is the recently approved the South Korea–U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS), which reduces South …
Real life can never give social scientists the kind of laboratory-quality tests that natural scientists can create, but sometimes it comes close. Since the two Koreas–North and South–are virtually identical culturally, it would appear that the different political systems explain the outcome illustrated by the figure below, which comes from last Monday’s Washington Post: Since the Korean War divided the country, South Korea’s citizens have enjoyed greater freedoms than their northern cousins, and that includes economic freedom. The Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal Index of Economic Freedom measures economic freedom over the recent …
In this week’s Heritage in Focus, expert Bruce Klingner discusses all the latest surrounding North Korea and the death of Kim Jong Il. Click here to listen. Will Kim Jong-Un, Kim Jong Il’s son, lead North Korea down the same path? How are relations with the U.S. and South Korea affected by Kim Jong Il’s death? And what should U.S. policy be moving foward. Click the link above to listen to Klingner answer those questions and more! To get regular updates on Heritage in Focus podcasts, visit our RSS feed or subscribe on …
Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) visited Heritage this week to give the annual B.C. Lee lecture, focusing on the importance of American leadership in the Asia-Pacific region. After his speech, he sat down with us for a wide-ranging interview. When asked about President Obama’s handling of foreign policy, Lieberman described his performance as “mixed”: Because we were so focused after 9/11 on the threat of Islamic terrorism in the Middle East, I don’t think President [George W.] Bush got the credit he deserved for a dramatic improvement in our relationship with …
Ambassador Stephen Bosworth was typically cryptic in his remarks after concluding two days of meetings last week with North Korean counterparts. Bosworth stated that the bilateral talks were “moving in the right direction [since] we have made some progress.” He added that the tone of the meetings was “positive and generally constructive,” enabling differences between the two countries needed to be narrowed further. Although issues needed to be resolved, both sides would work hard to do so. Some journalists sought to seize on the seemingly positive description as a signal …
Now that Congress has passed free trade agreements with Columbia, Panama and South Korea, it’s a good time to ask why the United States should support and expand free trade. The chart below shows that the benefits of free trade are hard to deny. Countries that have more trade freedom also enjoy stronger economies, less hunger, and better care of the environment. Opponents of free trade complain that it leads to “unfair” foreign competition and that it destroys jobs, but the truth is a much different story. “Countries with the …
Congress keeps threatening to shut down over the budget, but there is at least one thing the two houses can agree on. Pending free trade agreements have bipartisan support in both the House and Senate; all that is needed is for President Obama to send them to Congress, so that they can be passed. Congressman Kevin Brady (R–TX), vice chairman and top Republican on the Joint Economic Committee and chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade, spoke at the Heritage Bloggers Briefing on the pending free trade …
Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) visited Heritage earlier this week for The Bloggers Briefing and stuck around to chat in our Robert H. Bruce Radio Studio. On this week’s Scribecast, we cover tax reform, Brady’s MAP ACT, free-trade agreements and what Texas can teach the rest of America. Listen to our interview with Rep. Kevin Brady on Scribecast Brady is the vice chairman and top Republican on the Joint Economic Committee and serves as chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade. He was the point man for the White …
“We’re cutting our own throats here, I think,” Kim Murray, from the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council, recently remarked in reference to the U.S. failure to pass pending free trade agreements (FTAs) with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. These agreements fell to the wayside in the midst of the debt ceiling debates; however, U.S. producers and workers have been feeling the pinch as other countries have already entered into FTAs with these nations. “While we stand still, the European Union’s trade agreement with Korea entered into force July 1.… …
What does it take to keep a small ruling elite in power, living a life of luxury, all while blackmailing the world into sending food to keep a servant population from starving to death? North Korea has figured out the formula—a combination of intimidation via nuclear weapons and outright armed attacks on its neighbor to the south. Heritage’s James Carafano explains in The Washington Examiner that Pyongyang’s methods—which of late have included the unprovoked sinking of a South Korean naval vessel and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island—are expected to continue: Most Korean …
