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
Biden says his steel tariffs totally different from Trump’s, speculates uncle was eaten by cannibals
President Joe Biden vowed Wednesday that he would get tough on China’s steel dumping by tripling tariffs on imports. He argued this was totally different…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Paying for organs with Pete Jaworski
In this week’s episode we cover the future of AI and employment, why we shouldn’t trust Chinese economic statistics, and how the…
Daily Caller
Fresh Report Explains How International Climate Treaties Benefit China At America’s Expense
CEI’s Ben Lieberman is cited in Daily Caller on the Kigali Amendment: “China’s status as a developing nation in U.N. treaties has created an unfair…
Search Posts
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Imagine There Are No Countries
“Imagine there’s no countries. It isn’t hard to do,” John Lennon once told us. Ignoring Lennon's grammatical error, that is exactly what University of Wisconsin-Madison…
Op-Eds
Trade Deficit Is Nothing to Worry About
Does it bother you that you run a trade deficit with your grocery store? You probably bought thousands of dollars’ worth of food from it…
Op-Eds
Angela Merkel’s Bismarckian Euro Diplomacy
German Chancellor Angela Merkel seems to be channeling her 19th century predecessor, Otto von Bismarck, in a striking way; engineering a diplomatic balancing act…
Blog
Miraculous Markets: Water Into Wine
Libertarians are often accused of “worshiping” the free market. But the truth is, markets can perform miracles. A car growing in Iowa? David Friedman (son…
Blog
CEI Podcast For July 19, 2012: Congress Takes On High-Skilled Immigration Reform
Congress will soon vote on a package of reforms for holders of the H-1B visa for high-skilled immigrants. Policy Analyst David Bier unpacks the proposed…
Blog
Europe’s Central Bankers Are Running Out Of Road
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said yesterday in his testimony to the House Financial Services Committee that Europe is a long way off from having a…
Blog
Obama Administration Urged Self-Reliant Hispanics To Go On Food Stamps
The government encouraged self-sufficient Hispanics to apply for food stamps, in a Spanish-language radio campaign that continued until English speakers finally became aware…
Blog
Americans Pay Taxes On Overseas Income, Including Bank Accounts In So-Called “Tax Havens”
Recently, there has been a lot of coverage of the fact that Romney, Obama, and other politicians like Dick Durbin and Debbie Wasserman…
Blog
Italy Kicks the Can on Labor Reform
Italy continues to put off addressing its most fundamental economic problem: impossibly rigid labor regulation. In this letter to The Wall Street Journal, I explain why…
Study
Freeing Europe From the Euro
The basic principles of the common market could save the European Union, if they were applied to monetary policy. Europe’s currency future lies in competition.
Blog
A Dream Deferred: An Independence Day Story About Becoming An American Citizen
On July 4, Popehat’s Ken White posted a touching story about Filipino World War II veterans belatedly given their promised American citizenship in the…
Blog
How Restricted Borders Replaced Free Migration
By the late 19th century, liberalism had essentially defeated mercantilism as the West's dominant economic philosophy. With its ascent, state attempts to control trade and travel…
Blog
Georgia Offers “Amnesty” to Businesses From Its Tough Immigration Law
More amnesty from immigration laws by prosecutorial discretion! No, not the president’s order to defer deportation for certain children of undocumented immigrants, but the decision…
Blog
Globalization Has Been Happening for a Long Time
Our innate tendency to truck and barter, as Adam Smith put it, is very strong indeed.
Blog
Supreme Court Limits Arizona’s Anti-Immigration Law
The Supreme Court has struck down portions of Arizona’s SB 1070 — the controversial immigration law that targets undocumented migrant workers. The Court ruled that…
Blog
Supreme Court Strikes Down Mandatory Life Sentences Without Parole for Teenagers, But Does Not Cite “International Norms”
The Supreme Court has just ruled 5-to-4 that states cannot mandate life sentences without the possibility of parole for murderers under age 18, no matter…
Blog
Who’s the Outsourcer-in-Chief? Obama
Earlier, after discussing all the jobs that have been sent overseas by the Obama administration using taxpayer subsidies, I dubbed President Obama the “…
Blog
The Myopia of “Green” Business at Rio+20
If cliches carry a grain of truth, the saying, “No good deed goes unpunished,” carries a silo in the business world. One of the sorriest…
Blog
Bailouts Won’t Save Europe, Only Reform Will
As European leaders panic over bailouts for Southern Europe, they miss an important reality. Comprehensive structural reform is the only long-term solution for recovery. Perversely, bailouts…
Daily Mail
Bring on the ‘Brixit’: EU Withdrawal Would Bring Benefits for Both Britain and the US
While much of the worry in the United States about the future of the European Union has focused on Greece, Spain, and Italy and their…
Daily Mail
Reform, Not a Bailout, Will Save Italy
WITH Greece on life support from the European Union and Spain squirming in the financial vice grip of its insolvent banks, talk of an Italian…
Blog
Department of Homeland Security: Some Undocumented Aliens Who Came As Children Can Stay
Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it will begin to grant two-year deportation deferrals for undocumented immigrants up to 30 years old…
Blog
China Takes Hard Stance on EU’s Airline Emissions Charges
It looks like it could begin a trade war — in airplanes. China has announced that it may impound European Union airplanes in retaliation if…
News Release
Report: Labeling Law for Beef, Pork Impedes Canada-U.S. Trade
Washington, D.C., June 13, 2012 – Complicated U.S. food labeling mandates on beef and pork impede trade between the U.S. and Canada without providing any…
Study
MCOOL and the Politics of Country-of-Origin Labeling
The Mandatory Country-of-Origin Label (MCOOL) for beef and pork products was brought into force by the United States in 2008. It imposes uneven tracking, segregating,…
Blog
Seasteading for Enterprise on the High Seas
Complete exit from the state has long been a dream of many libertarians. From the defunct Republic of Minerva (perhaps the only nation every to…
Blog
Bhagwati: How the Multilateral Trade System Is Being Eroded
Trade economist Jagdish Bhagwati’s latest article points out dangers to the world trading system of bilateral and regional trade agreements between unequal partners that…
Blog
The Futility of Religious Profiling at Airport Security Checkpoints
“Obviously, Muslims would be someone you'd look at, absolutely,” former-Senator Rick Santorum said during a GOP presidential debate last year. “Radical Muslims are…
Blog
Carbon Tariffs Again in the Spotlight
Here it comes again — talk of an EU carbon tax. This time it’s a member of the new administration of new French President Francois…
The American Spectator
A Tsunami of Bad Economics
The broken Krugman fallacy. Japan was hit by a tsunami last year on March 11. That’s not news, but the reaction of some economists sure…
Blog
A Fit of Sanity on ITAR
Over at Space Politics, Jeff Foust reports that the House has passed a bill allowing the administration to remove satellites from…
Blog
Give a Man a Fish
Those with an interest in conserving our oceans’ fish stocks and those with an interest in promoting private property should both be interested in my…
Blog
Before Immigration Was Regulated: Pre-20th Century Migration
Early large-scale human migration is the story of dispersal, spreading out as resources were used up and populations expanded past sustainability. The Agricultural Revolution brought…
Blog
Tuna-Dolphin Issue — Again a WTO Decision
No, tuna-dolphin is not a hybrid fish, but the subject of a long-standing trade dispute between Mexico and the United States arising from a 1990…
Blog
Government Lost Tons of Money in the Auto Bailouts, Despite Benefiting from Blind Luck
As John Lott notes, “Having just $34 billion to show after a $100 billion-plus investment would get a chief executive of any private company…
Blog
Let’s Lose LOST
The Law of the Sea Treaty would drastically undermine American sovereignty, giving massive powers to the U.N. (aka the Dictators’ Club of New York), but…
Blog
Cut Military Spending to Prevent Tax Increases; Obama Administration Endangers Anti-Terrorism Efforts by Exposing Undercover Agent
The Cato Institute has identified $17-20 billion in readily-achievable savings to the 2013 military budget. Such cuts can help stave off tax increases. As…
Blog
Greek Tragedy Nears a Dramatic End
With the prospects for a Greek pro-austerity coalition fading rapidly, here is a round-up of the most useful stories on the Greek tragedy: The…
Blog
Immigration and Demographic Doom
America -- the world’s most recent great civilization -- faces a demographic problem that calls for a solution from the dawn of civilization. When civilization…
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 10, 2012: Freeing Our Farms
Current immigration policy keeps many immigrants in dangerous black markets, raises food prices for consumers, makes it difficult for farmers to hire workers and create…
Letters
Letter on Farm Bill Entitlements
Full Document Available in PDF CEI signed a joint letter advocating real reform of…
Blog
Austerity Bites – But It Isn’t the Problem
The election results in Europe, we are told, are a vote against the austerity of "savage" spending cuts. Veronique de Rugy, in National Review Online,…
Blog
European Lessons for America
George Will warns that America’s system of competitive federalism is threatened by our own “Greeces.” (“In Illinois the bills are coming due,” April 27). Europe…
The American Spectator
Forget France, the Greek Elections Are the Beginning of the End for Europe
While much of the world’s attention was concentrated on France’s presidential election last Sunday, the real action was in Greece. French President-elect François Hollande may…
Blog
The Great Unanswered Question About the Eurozone
In a column for the FT today, Wolfgang Munchau lays out what may be the only plausible solution to the Eurozone crisis – for…
Blog
H-2A Visas: Open in Theory, Closed in Practice
[caption id="attachment_54582" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="An Immigrant Worker in Idaho"][/caption] “Our immigration problem’s not going away.” That was the title of my article for…
Blog
When Commodities Analysts Should Stick To Commodities
Some analysts at Barclays attempt to understand the business case for Planetary Resources, and massively fail: Their…
Blog
Central Bankers are Playing a Losing Game
The supposed economic “recovery” is faltering. The sugar high of freshly printed money from the world’s central banks is beginning to wear off. In…
Blog
SB 1070 Summary: Read Arizona’s Controversial Immigration Law!
Arizona’s controversial immigration law -- SB 1070 -- heads to the Supreme Court this week. One can only hope that the Justices do a…
Blog
Super Mario Hasn’t Saved Italy’s Entrepreneurs
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti is full of optimism these days. He has claimed to achieve “historic” reform in Italy’s labor market and to beat…