Testimony before Energy and Environment Subcommittee, Science, Space and Technology Committee United States House December… Read more
Abstract: The 2012 rankings of trade freedom around the world indicate that trade freedom in the world has remained constant or regressed slightly since 2011. The lack of improvement is regrettable because countries with the most trade freedom have the highest per capita gross… Read more
Debates about trade and tariffs are a recurring element in U.S. history, and each time they have been resolved in favor of more freedom, Americans have enjoyed long periods of greater prosperity. Legislators should keep this history in mind and advance pending trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea… Read more
Free trade is the framework upon which American prosperity rests. Free trade policies have created economic dynamism that engenders continual innovation and leads to better products, new markets, and greater investment. America stands to gain from expanding its markets through the free trade agreements (FTAs) with South Korea, Colombia, and… Read more
Executive Summary After years of needless delay, the South Korea–U.S. free trade agreement (KORUS FTA) is finally gathering momentum for congressional approval. Several key Members of Congress who previously opposed the FTA are now advocating its implementation. However, some die-hard opponents are making a last-ditch effort to stoke resistance to the… Read more
One subject of the third round of the U.S.–China Strategic and Economic Dialogue will be cybersecurity. Part of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’s proposed Strategic Security Dialogue, it reflects the growing prominence of cybersecurity in Sino-American strategic relations. The concerns include computer network exploitation and computer network… Read more
President Obama and his congressional allies’ domestic climate change agenda—“cap and trade”—failed in the last Congress due to extensive opposition to its costly regulations and barriers to growth. Having failed to enact draconian climate change legislation domestically, however, President Obama has quietly shifted some of these efforts overseas by funneling… Read more
Abstract: Governments and large agribusinesses are increasingly using the environmentalist movement and its policy arm of green nongovernmental organizations to justify imposing protectionist non-tariff barriers on developing countries. Wrong-headed environmental policies and “green” protectionism are contributing to a resurgence of malaria in some countries… Read more
Congress’ approval ratings are at an all-time low. Even for an institution with typically low approval ratings, this Congress has demonstrated an uncanny ability to defer and deflect responsibility, inviting criticism from the electorate. And when it has acted, its policies have been grossly misguided. Among the… Read more
Abstract: The Heritage Foundation began ranking trade freedom around the world in 1995. The newest rankings (to appear in the 2011 Index of Economic Freedom) show global trade freedom as high as it has ever been. That is encouraging: Countries with higher levels of… Read more
Unless Congress acts now, two important trade programs -- the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) -- will expire at the end of 2009. Because these trade programs make essential contributions to the economies of the countries that they favor while benefiting American businesses… Read more
President Obama and Europe share a problem: Both are being snubbed by China on trade. The President's recent trip to the PRC included accusations by the Chinese of U.S. protectionism. This statement was the first attack of its kind by Beijing, and… Read more
Milton Friedman once said that “there is no alternative way, so far discovered, of improving the lot of the ordinary...… Read more
There’s a very old political rule getting a new twist in the House of Representatives right now: When your policies...… Read more
Today marks the 81st anniversary of the passage of the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act. Actor and economist Ben Stein famously...… Read more
The latest study by the McKinsey Global Institute reveals some astonishing facts concerning contributions of U.S....… Read more
The latest outbreak of creeping global protectionism is in Brazil, which announced March 8 that it intends to levy...… Read more
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) is a man of his words, sort of. He told people he wanted to get a global warming bill that...… Read more
The crisis in Russia is revealing new features proving it is quite unlike the global downturn. Last week saw numerous...… Read more
Free trade has been receiving a bad rap lately. Barack Obama's campaign has come out in full force against free trade....… Read more
Barack Obama has frequently called the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) "a bad deal." During one Democratic...… Read more
As bad as many conservatives thought the Clintons were, at least they helped forge a bipartisan consensus on free trade....… Read more