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
The Washington Times
Retail industry projects surge in post-Christmas regifting and returns
The Washington Times quoted CEI’s expert on regifting in the retail industry The problem is that regifting ‘can suggest a certain laziness on the part…
Blog
Nice dock. Big shame if you modernized it, Trump warns ports
President Trump has signaled that if East Coast dockworkers go on strike, he will back them instead of the ports. This increases the odds that…
Washington Examiner
Trump will need to hire new federal workers for trade war, former Cabinet member says
The Washington Examiner CEI’s expert on how Trump’s trade policy might be at odds with the DOGE mission. Ryan Young, senior economist at the libertarian Competitive…
Search Posts
News Release
Free Trade Pacts Delayed by Failed Strategy of Union Appeasement, New CEI Report Finds
Washington, D.C., October 4, 2011 – President Obama yesterday sent three free trade agreements to Congress after years of stalling. A new report shows how…
Op-Eds
Austerity Hardly To Blame
Re: “Harper rejects warnings austerity will spark recession,” The Journal, Sept. 28. Former U.S. president Herbert Hoover did not practice austerity, so it is…
Study
Free Trade Without Apology
Congress needs to stop trying to appease organized labor and approve free trade deals on the treaties’ own merits.
Blog
Poverty Skyrockets in the World’s Poorest Country Due to Racial Violence After Revolution in Neighboring Libya
Niger is the poorest country in Africa and the world: Many of its people go hungry every day, many children die before their fifth…
Blog
Judge Censors Speech About Affirmative Action and Fraud in Racial Set-Asides
Political "commentator Andrew Bolt 'was found guilty Wednesday of breaking Australian discrimination law by implying that fair-skinned Aborigines chose to identify as indigenous for…
Blog
Trade Agreements are Not Job-Killers, Despite Sen. Reid’s Remarks
The Senate and House votes on the free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea seem inevitable, now that the main Democratic roadblock to…
Blog
Pull Out of Basel III: The Moral Hazard of Government Ratings
Recently and for different reasons, two high-profile players from different parts of the financial sector -- JPMorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon and respected banking analyst…
Comment
CEI Submits Supplemental Comments on SEC’s Proposed Conflict Minerals Rules
The Competitive Enterprise Institute has submitted supplemental comments regarding Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a provision that would…
Blog
Dodd-Frank Financial Law Uses Regulations to Outsource American Jobs
American jobs will soon be outsourced due to the Dodd-Frank financial "reform" law passed in 2010 with strong support from the Obama administration. That law…
Comment
CEI Submits Comments on Conflict Minerals Rules of Dodd-Frank
The Competitive Enterprise has submitted comments regarding the implementation of Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act which attempts to…
Blog
CEI Podcast for September 22, 2011: E-Verify
E-Verify is a program that checks the immigration status of new hires. The House is expected to vote on legislation that would make E-Verify mandatory…
Blog
Senator Hatch: Good Reasons Not to Extend TAA
With Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) scheduled for a vote today, in debate on the measure yesterday, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) gave a spirited speech outlining…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 197: Planking
Threats to freedoms even as trivial as planking should not be taken lying down.
Blog
Looking at TAA Worker Eligibility Last Year — Some Observations and Questions
Now that reauthorization of Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) is all but a done deal -- a quid pro quo from Republican leadership to President…
Blog
The Establishment Turns Against Democracy!
The Financial Times‘ lead editorial today, “Democracy’s Slow Cure for the Euro,” illustrates a growing willingness of “experts” to argue that people are too…
Blog
Sen. McConnell Introduces “Fast Track” Trade Authority; Hits Unions for Obstructing Trade Agreements
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) made a gutsy statement on the Senate floor today, saying that he was introducing an amendment to give…
Forbes
Two Cheers For A Big U.S. Trade Deficit
News that the U.S. trade deficit narrowed this summer has brought the usual cheers from commentators. The Associated Press celebrated, noting, “[A] narrowing…
Forbes
Anti-Immigration Laws Hurt Economy
Arizona’s immigration laws — Senate Bill 1070 and the 2007 Legal Arizona Workers Act (LAWA) — were designed to drive undocumented immigrants out of the…
Blog
WTO Issues Panel’s Findings on U.S.-Mexico Tuna-Dolphin Dispute
The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) dispute panel has found that the U.S. requirements for a “dolphin-safe” label on tuna products are more trade-restrictive than…
Blog
AMA Calls for Trade Agreements to Exclude Alcohol and Tobacco
The American Medical Association is calling for alcohol and tobacco to be excluded in all new U.S. trade agreements. New Zealand’s NZWeek, at the…
Blog
Obama’s Job Creation Proposal Will Be Ineffective, Experts Say
Despite its massive price tag of $450 billion, President Obama's recently-proposed American Jobs Act seems like a useless dud to experts who've analyzed it, and the…
Forbes
Immigration is Not Charity
The biggest misconception about immigration is that it is a zero-sum game–that there is a finite number of jobs which immigrants “take” from the…
Blog
The “Overhead Smash” Of ITAR
Over at Beltway Confidential today, Tim Carney asks if one of the unintended (or perhaps not-so-unintended) consequences of Dodd-Frank will be to…
Forbes
Trade Restrictions Will Not Help Underpaid Chinese Workers
Re: “America’s economic troubles are deep-seated,” From Readers, Sept. 6 Madeleine Soudee laments that China, India and Vietnam are “intensely competitive by ignoring human…
Forbes
Alex Nowrasteh on Alabama’s Immigration Law
CEI Policy Analyst Alex Nowrasteh discusees the economic harm from tight immigration restrictions such as Alabama House Bill 56.
Blog
Obama Administration Violated Federal Laws in Operation Fast and Furious, which Led to Killings of Americans and Mexicans
The scandal over Operation Fast and Furious, in which the Obama administration funneled thousands of guns to violent Mexican drug lords in an abortive, mismanaged…
Blog
Free Trade vs. Protectionism
If international trade barriers create wealth, why stop there? Every state should have its own trade barriers against every other state.
Blog
Many New Job-Killing Regulations from the Obama Administration
Andrew Stiles describes "Ten Job-Destroying Regulations" from the Obama administration that will wipe out hundreds of thousands of jobs. Another job-killing regulation is the…
Forbes
Should We Charge For Immigrant Visas?
Forbes
Immigration Tariff: Reforming a Broken System
America’s immigration system is broken. Years of overregulation aimed at micromanaging the system has produced nearly 100 different types of visas, each with its…
Forbes
Rekindling the Dream
Martin Luther King Jr. is now memorialized with an imposing statue on the D.C. National Mall. While the honor is long overdue, his legacy should…
Blog
A Letter to the Editor about Natural Rights and the Cuban Economy
In an editorial last week Mary Anastasia O’Grady wrote about a supposed “economic revolution” happening in Cuba. It seems the Cuban government has just liberated…
Blog
What the Berlin Wall Represents
In response to Jacob Heilbrunn’s August 12 opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times entitled, “Berlin Wall: A blessing in disguise,” I submitted the…
Blog
Europe’s Woes No Excuse for Abysmal U.S. Growth
Today, once again, the market is crashing largely due to events in the European Union. President Obama and other policy makers wring their collective hands…
Blog
Canada’s PM praises trade pact with Colombia — a good act for President Obama to follow
Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper, with his strong defense of Canada’s trade agreement with Colombia, provides a stark contrast with President Obama’s weak-kneed approach…
Forbes
Dodd-Frank Side Effect: Devastation of Congo.
Study
In America’s National Interest—Canadian Oil
Full Document Available in PDF Canada now provides more oil to the U.S.
Blog
The “Obama Law” Devastates Impoverished People in the World’s Second Poorest Country, The Congo
People are going hungry, pulling their children out of school due to poverty, and joining criminal gangs to make ends meet in the poorest region…
Blog
Obama’s Uninspiring, Empty Response to the Downgrade of America’s Credit Rating
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down a massive 634 points after Obama gave an uninspiring address in response to the downgrading…
News Release
New Study Touts Benefits of Expanded Oil Trade with Canada
Washington, DC, August 9, 2011 – Canada now provides more oil to the U.S. than all Persian Gulf countries combined, lessening America’s so-called “dependence” on…
Products
Fred Smith and Pat Buchanan discuss the Bush administration’s handling of steel tariffs on CNBC
Copyright 2003 CNBC, Inc. CNBC News Transcripts SHOW: Capital Report (9:00 PM ET) – CNBC November 11, 2003 Tuesday LENGTH: 1487 words HEADLINE: Fred Smith…
Blog
Free Trade Agreements: Braking through the Barrier
Finally. It looks like Congress will actually be moving to approve the three pending FTAs after it returns from the summer recess according to a…
Blog
CEI Podcast for August 4, 2011: Liberalizing Trade
Congress is expected to take up stalled free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea when it returns from its August recess. Adjunct Fellow…
Blog
Gender Quotas Spread in Europe, Mandated for Corporate Boards
After Norway adopted gender quotas for corporate boards -- requiring companies to have boards of directors comprised of at least 40 percent women -- large…
Blog
CEI Podcast for July 28, 2011: Immigration Reform
President Obama made a speech on immigration reform this week. Policy Analyst Alex Nowrasteh dissects several bills already in Congress that would do just that,…
Blog
Thousands of Jobs and Billions in Wealth Wiped Out by Dodd-Frank Conflict Minerals Provision
Thanks to the "conflict minerals" provisions of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, thousands of the world's poorest people will lose their jobs. Why? Simply because they…
Forbes
Senate Subcommittee Concludes- Immigration Reform Imperative for Economic Growth
Forbes
Alex Nowrasteh on the Benefits of the DREAM Act
CEI's Alex Nowrasteh offers reasons to support the DREAM Act. While he does not support the federal funding aspect of the bill, he believes that…
Forbes
Easter Egg in Dodd-Frank
Blog
Aim for Multilateral Trade Pact — Bilaterals Replete with Protectionist Demands, says Bhagwati
In yesterday’s New York Times, trade economist Jagdish Bhagwati takes the Obama administration and Congress to task for letting the World Trade Organization’s Doha…
