With the World Trade Organization’s Doha Round of trade talks at a standstill, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is taking action by giving poor nations “ongoing and absolute access to 100 per cent of [Australia’s] trade markets.” The United States should follow in Australia’s footsteps by removing all barriers to imports from poor nations. According to Gillard, “Economic growth and trade is the surest way out of poverty, the surest way to create jobs and spread growth.” Poor countries have had free access to Australia’s market since 2003 with no …
On Friday the Kremlin announced that Russia and the U.S. settled all outstanding bilateral issues relating to Russia’s accession to the WTO. “I can say that the United States has removed all the questions regarding Russia joining the WTO,” Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said, assuring the press that Russia will settle all outstanding issues regarding its accession to the global trade organization within four months at the most. Later the same day, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and U.S. President Barack Obama spoke on the phone. According to the White …
In remarks on World Environment Day, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Pascal Lamy, pointed out that, “Trade opening has much to contribute in the fight against climate change and to the protection of the environment.” Indeed, the most practical improvements in energy efficiency and protecting the environment over the past decades haven’t stemmed from government regulatory mandates. As shown in the analysis of the Index of Economic Freedom, the most progress has been driven by advances in freer trade and economic freedom. These unleash greater economic opportunity …
On April 6, last minute action by the Obama administration averted a near trade conflict with Brazil concerning the trade-distorting U.S. cotton subsidy programs. With the provisional deal, the U.S. avoided about $830 million in trade sanctions on over 100 American exports targeted by Brazil. Those retaliatory tariffs would have gone into effect on April 7. More changes to U.S. cotton programs, which were declared illegal under the WTO’s 2008 ruling, have been pushed back to as early as 2012 when Congress will have to revisit the farm bill. So, …
The latest outbreak of creeping global protectionism is in Brazil, which announced March 8 that it intends to levy nearly USD$600 million in increased import duties on more than 100 products made in the U.S. in retaliation for the United States’ failure to comply with a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling against its subsidies for cotton producers and exporters. According to “World Trade\INTERACTIVE,” the Brazilian government also plans to impose the first-ever WTO-legal cross-retaliation measures on U.S. intellectual property rights holders that could lead to more than USD$200 million in …
In many ways the Bush Administration has fought hard for free trade … but they are far from perfect. As the Wall Street Journal reports, the White House finally lost its four-year effort to defend cotton subsidies from a complaint by Brazil in the World Trade Organization. If the US fails to turn away from the current drift towards protectionism the costs will be high: If the U.S. refuses to act, Brazil now has the right to retaliate against U.S. products to the tune of $4 billion. That price will …
