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
Blog
The Economist’s founder and the fight for free trade
My CEI colleagues Iain Murray and Ryan Young wrote in 2018 that tariffs benefit “domestic producers and the politicians they support,” at the expense of “everybody else in the economy.” …
Blog
Section 301 and the problem of limitless tariff justifications
Earlier this week, the US Trade Representative (USTR) announced findings from a series of Section 301 tariff investigations concerning imports allegedly made with forced…
National Review
Three Arguments Against Tariffs
President Trump loves tariffs. The Americans paying them don’t. A recent CNN poll found that 65 percent of Americans blame Trump’s tariffs specifically for…
Search Posts
Fox Business
US trade deficit hits record high in March
Fox Business cited CEI’s expert on trade deficits “Trump’s trade deficit fixation is a mistake,” said Competitive Enterprise Institute senior economist Ryan Young. “The U.S.
Blog
Farm subsidies, car interest deduction show tariffs’ triple harms
Tariffs are a three-in-one tool for economic self-harm. The first harm comes from the tariffs themselves, which raise producer costs and consumer prices in the…
News Release
Trade deficit grew in March, tariff effects just beginning: CEI analysis
According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the US trade deficit grew by 14 percent in March ahead of President Trump’s broad tariff announcement…
Blog
Why do so many countries have tariffs?
Over at the Center Square, Iain Murray and I ask an overlooked question: If tariffs are so bad, then why does nearly every country…
Center Square Opinion
Why do so many countries have tariffs?
If tariffs are so bad, then why does nearly every country have them? It’s a fair question, and many Trump tariff defenders are asking it.
Blog
That didn’t take long: Tariffs shrink economy in just two months
The US is halfway to a self-imposed recession, and tariffs are to blame. A healthy economy started shrinking even before President Trump’s Rose Garden…
