As a result, CEI experts have encouraged and supported trade-enhancing policies and treaties over the years, including “fast-track” Trade Promotion Authority, specific trade deals, and multilateral efforts such as the Doha round of the World Trade Organization. We have opposed increased tariffs, attempts to increase regulation through trade deal language, and the trend toward bilateral rather than multilateral deals. CEI continues to make the case for free trade in the face of increased bipartisan hostility to the idea.
CEI’s experts also work with like-minded colleagues abroad to oppose harmful initiatives, such as working with British colleagues to stop that country’s competition agency from blocking mergers between American firms based on speculative reasoning.
Featured Posts
News Release
Trump Administration Assertions in Supreme Court Tariff Hearing Lack Limiting Principle
Today, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the legality of President Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to justify the…
Blog
Stop artificially increasing demand for rare earths
Trade wars with China over rare earth minerals have sparked a number of policy responses, ranging from good ideas like streamlining the permitting process…
News Release
Inflation increased 0.3 percent in September, higher prices still sticking around: CEI analysis
September saw an inflation increase of 0.3 percent across all sectors, in line with economists’ predictions. CEI senior economist Ryan Young says today’s…
Search Posts
Blog
Let in More Foreign Doctors to Fix Looming Shortage of Physicians Aggravated by Obamacare
“Bring on the foreign doctors,” writes Slate’s Brian Palmer: If President Obama’s health care reform plan is implemented in its current form, the United…
Comment
Balance of Competences Review: Trade and Investment
Full Document Available in PDF Iain Murray is a British citizen who is Vice President at CEI and heads the…
Blog
Europe’s Continued Stagnation Is Not Surprising, Given Lack of Reform
The Guardian reports that Italy’s record-long economic slump has continued for another quarter. This isn’t much of a surprise given Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s…
Blog
The Misleading Push for the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Last year, the Senate did not ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, with supporters falling just short of the two-thirds…
Blog
Tracking the Cultural Exception, Part Four: A Double-Edged Sword
Americans generally think of subsidies to audiovisual industries like film and television as a foreign phenomenon. Yet that is hardly the case. In fact, one…
Blog
New USTR Discusses Trade Agenda, How U.S. and EU Can Address Divergent Regulatory Regimes
At a forum this morning hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the new U.S. Trade Representative, Michael Froman, discussed the next steps…
Blog
Tracking the Cultural Exception, Part Three: For Your Grandad’s Audiovisual Industry
Protectionist audiovisual policies are not only inefficient, they’re outdated. Protectionist policies don’t translate into profits because they are built for an audio-visual industry that…
Blog
The HuffPo’s Sloppy Austerity Analysis
Mark Gongloff, a writer for the Huffington Post, claims to show “The Complete Failure of Austerity, In 1 Chart.” Wow! Either he has found…
Blog
Are Markets Rational When It Comes to Economic Fundamentals?
We hear frequently that financial markets thrive on irrational fears. That they are wrong to be wary of unreformed economies and that central banks are…
Daily Caller
A culture of freedom: the first casualty of the U.S.-EU trade deal
Co-written by Research Associate Alex McHugh The proposed trade agreement between the United States and the European Union, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment…
Blog
Gallup: Record Opposition to Closed Borders
A record number of Americans favor allowing more foreigners to enter and live in the United States each year. Nearly a quarter of Americans (23…
Letters
Letter to the U.S. House of Representatives on HR 2642, The FARRM Act
Dear Representative, The House is slated to vote on H.R. 2642, the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act (FARRM Act). This bloated…
News Release
House Votes to Permanently Extend Taxpayer Fleecing in Farm Bill
Washington, D.C., July 11, 2013 – Today, the House of Representatives approved the 2013 Farm Bill on a mostly partisan vote of 216-208. No Democrats…
Blog
European Court Invalidates “Whole-Life” Sentences: Fuzzy International Norms Erode Sovereignty, Freedoms, and Safety
It's common to see supporters of U.S. ratification of international treaties claim that they will not radically uproot existing U.S. practices or freedoms, because their…
Blog
Austerity Means Cuts, Not More Spending
Despite its frequent use through the media and in political debate, few journalists and politicians actually use the term “austerity” correctly. But Cypriot Finance Minister…
Daily Caller
Beware the Myth of European Austerity
Beware the Myth of European Austerity “France’s Austerity Drive Pushes Country into Recession.” “How Austerity Has Failed.” Thus proclaim two recent, typical…
Daily Caller
Europe’s lessons on austerity success
With the U.S. national debt about to pass the $17 trillion mark – more than America’s total economic activity in 2012 – and federal interest…
Blog
Tracking the Cultural Exception, Part Two: Exempt from Success
Arguments for cultural exemptions in free trade agreements seem simple -- allow for continued protection for domestic movie/entertainment industries to bolster their viability. But do…
Blog
CEI Podcast for July 2, 2013: The True Story of European Austerity
A new study by Warren Brookes Fellow Matthew Melchiorre finds that only 4 European countries out of 27 have actually cut taxes and spending.
Blog
New Study Dispels Myths of European Austerity
Cries throughout the media of “savage austerity” notwithstanding, only a handful of European countries have actually implemented austerity in the true sense of the term:…
Daily Caller
Who Made Government Big? We Did
After U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announced recently that the Fed would reduce its asset purchases through mid-2014, financial industry players and the journalists…
Blog
French Cheese Ban: An Attack on “Scientific Principles” in Violation of Treaties Protecting International Trade?
Earlier, we wrote about the U.S. government's de facto ban on the commonplace, perfectly healthy, normal-smelling French cheese mimolette (which I once confused with…
Cato
Banning Fancy French Cheese
I’m no cheese connoisseur. . .But I understand that some people have more refined tastes, and they feel very strongly about the issue. And they…
News Release
European Austerity That Isn’t – What’s Worked, What Hasn’t
Washington, D.C., June 28, 2013 – Most European countries have cut neither spending nor taxes. But European governments that have cut both spending and taxes…
Cato
In Europe Cutting Taxes and Spending Leads to the Best Results
Matthew Melchiorre, the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Warren Brookes Journalism Fellow, has written a report on so-called austerity in Europe showing that many…
Blog
Border Security Doesn’t Require “Invading” the Border
When President Bush left office in January 2009, there were about 30,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. If the Senate immigration bill (S. 744) passes, this…
Study
The True Story of European Austerity
European governments that have cut spending and taxes have higher rates of economic growth than their neighbors. Then why do we hear lamentations from the…
Blog
Tracking the Cultural Exception, Part One: How Does One Exempt a Culture?
On June 14, the European Union’s Council of Foreign Affairs adopted a mandate for negotiation on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). It…
Blog
E-Verify: A Boon for Lawyers, Bad for Employers
I have written extensively about the threats to Americans’ civil liberties from E-Verify, the employment verification system contained within the Senate’s comprehensive immigration reform (CIR)…
Blog
E-Verify National ID System Threatens Americans’ Privacy
“I’m not a criminal, so there’s really no reason for me to be in a criminal database.” That was James Shepherd, a Kentucky native…
Blog
France Wants Culture Out of U.S.-EU Trade Agreement
A New York Times article yesterday points out some of the potential difficulties already evident in early talks on a trade agreement between the…
Blog
Obama Should Learn from Germany about Cape Wind
I have an op-ed online in USA Today today entitled “America should learn from Europe on wind power.” In it, I outline how Europe…
Blog
France’s Taxing Culture
France has long feared foreign competition as a threat to its domestic producers. The nation has some of the most punitive taxes and labor regulations…
Blog
France Needs a “Power-Up” When It Comes to Labor Reform
In its annual country report released on Monday, the IMF turned up the heat on France for labor reform. The Washington-based lender called for…
Blog
U.S.-EU Trade Talks — The Precautionary Principle Rears its Ugly Head
Even before substantive negotiations have begun, a major problem has surfaced in talks on a U.S.-EU trade agreement. Last month, the European Parliament passed…
Blog
Graph: More Visas, Less Illegal Immigration
The graph below comes from University of Pennsylvania economist Douglas Massey. It depicts the three ways Mexican migrants have come to the United States–guest…
Blog
Senate Bill: Better for Legal Immigration
Free market immigration advocates recognize that freeing up America’s legal immigration system creates economic benefits for Americans while simultaneously expanding their rights of…
Blog
European Skepticism of Minimum Wage Falls on Deaf Ears in America
Spain’s central bank—operating within the European country with the highest rate of unemployment—just recommended to the government in Madrid a suspension of the minimum…
Blog
Senate Bill Won’t Stop Illegal Immigration Without More Work Visas
When the Senate “Gang of 8” released their immigration reform principles earlier this year, they made an important admission: that drastic restrictions on low-skilled…
Blog
Canada Not Happy with New Country of Origin Labeling Rules
Protectionism through non-tariff trade barriers is alive and well in the trade arena, even with the U.S.’s largest trading partner, Canada. New U.S. Department…
Blog
Entrepreneurship Visas in Senate Immigration Bill Are Critical
This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the Gang of 8 immigration bill. One provision of this bill will be welcome news to potential…
Blog
Anti-Business and Anti-Freedom: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
In the American Spectator, CEI Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray and Geoffrey McLatchey explain why the Senate should be skeptical of the United Nations Convention…
Blog
Does Austerity Really “Kill”?
Does austerity kill? In a recent New York Times op-ed, David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu claim that fiscal austerity leads to a worsening of health…
Blog
Five Reasons Immigration Creates Economic Benefits
First, if each new immigrant lowers living standards, new people also lower living standards. But without new people, America’s economy would lack the workers it…
The American Spectator
Disabling American Sovereignty
Coauthored with Geoffrey McClatchey. The United States Senate will likely soon consider ratification the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD),…
News Release
Another Sweet Deal for “Big Sugar” in Senate Vote
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 22, 2013 — In a loss for consumers and taxpayers, Congress once again voted to continue the outdated, wasteful sugar program. The…
Blog
What Happened to U.S. Wages During Mass Immigration?
America’s immigration debate often focuses on how immigrants affect the welfare state, even though many immigration restrictionists would oppose immigration even if we did…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 231: Serving Olive Oil
Starting January 1, 2014, any olive oil served at EU restaurants “must be in pre-packaged, factory bottles with a tamper-proof dispensing nozzle and labelling in…
Letters
Coalition Letter on the “Terrible Twelve” of Farm Policy
Full Document Available in PDF Washington’s Farm Policy is a nearly trillion dollar tangle of agriculture subsidies, welfare payments and environmental patronage.
Blog
Sorry, Daily Beast: E-Verify Will Be National ID
Daily Beast blogger Justin Green, who blogs on columnist David Frum’s Daily Beast blog, has responded to Wired’s recent article “Biometric Database of All…
