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
Abstract: There is great concern in the U.S. about Chinese currency policy costing American jobs. But over two decades, there has been no evidence that a weak yuan causes high American unemployment. What American policymakers should focus on is other Chinese actions that do… Read more
Abstract: The scheduled autumn visit of China’s next Communist Party General Secretary, Xi Jinping, to Washington is a good opportunity for the U.S. to re-examine its often mismanaged economic diplomacy with China. Policymakers from both parties frequently point… Read more
Abstract: Chinese investment in the rest of the world, especially in the United States, continues to be a controversial topic. It is important for policymakers to understand the scope of China’s investments, and unless there is a specific national security consideration, market principles should… Read more
It seems like Vietnam has been the next big thing for quite a while. Vietnam did very well in the 1990s and through the turn of the century. For the past two years, however, despite all the advantages it possesses, the Vietnamese government has managed only to destabilize a promising… Read more
The supply of rare earth elements continues to receive a great deal of attention on both commercial and national security grounds. As ever, there are various demands from various quarters that the U.S. government act to “fix the problem.” Most of these demands are mistaken. At present,… Read more
“Smart power” is supposedly the Hegelian synthesis of soft and hard power instruments of foreign policy. In reality, though, it usually means downgrading hard power in favor of soft power, which is precisely what is happening in America today. Now, “smart power” has received its official stamp from the White… 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
Abstract: President Obama has pledged to double U.S. exports over the next five years—an ambitious goal. But the President’s strategy of creating Export Promotion Cabinets and subsidizing loans is not the way to make that happen. The federal budget deficit—$1.4 trillion—is the largest obstacle… Read more
In the opening chapter of the 2010 Trade Policy Agenda and 2009 Annual Report, President Obama unveiled a trade agenda that aims to double U.S. exports within five years and create jobs.[1] Prominent on Obama’s trade to-do list is the implementation of the National Export Initiative (NEI),… Read more
Abstract: Russia's revenues from oil and natural gas are enabling its aggressive and often anti-Western foreign policy. Russia's falling economic performance has toned down Russia's rhetoric, but has not drastically changed Russia's foreign policy narrative, which remains decidedly anti- status quo and implicitly anti-American.… Read more
In recent days, both Vietnam and the European Union have joined the ranks of countries either filing complaints or seeking sanctions against the United States within the World Trade Organization (WTO) in response to America’s practice of “zeroing” in anti-dumping investigations.[1] “Zeroing” artificially inflates dumping… Read more
On March 1, Brazil will announce a list of retaliatory tariffs against U.S. goods—a response to the American government’s unwillingness to eliminate subsidies to domestic cotton producers. The World Trade Organization (WTO), in 2004 and again in 2005, deemed facets of America’s cotton program inconsistent with multilateral trade… Read more
The World Trade Organization's (WTO) Seventh Ministerial Conference held earlier this month did little to spur progress on a global trade pact. While the ministerial was not billed as a negotiating round, and the struggling Doha Development Round was only one of several topics on the agenda, there… Read more
With the World Trade Organization’s Doha Round of trade talks at a standstill, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard...… Read more
On Friday the Kremlin announced that Russia and the U.S. settled all outstanding bilateral issues relating to Russia's...… Read more
In remarks on World Environment Day, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Pascal Lamy, pointed...… Read more
On April 6, last minute action by the Obama administration averted a near trade conflict with Brazil concerning the...… Read more
The latest outbreak of creeping global protectionism is in Brazil, which announced March 8 that it intends to levy...… Read more
The President’s recognition in last night’s Fox News interview that exports play an important role in bolstering U.S....… Read more
President Obama has decided to apply heavy tariffs to passenger car and light truck replacement tires made in China....… Read more
MOSCOW - In conjunction with the St Petersburg Economic International Forum, speculations over Russia’s accession to WTO...… Read more
The G-20 summit communiqué has been released. As we predicted, it has something for everyone, though rather more for...… Read more
As the world continues to deal with the global economic downturn, Pascal Lamy, the Director-General of the World Trade...… Read more