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
At minimum, keep the de minimis import exemption
The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission has just issued its recommendations for China policy. One of them is to eliminate the de minimis…
Blog
Tariffs are lousy revenue generators
President-elect Donald Trump has proposed cutting income taxes and raising tariffs to replace some of the revenue. Economists of all political stripes have been…
News Release
Boeing machinists strike ends, but union should face financial reality
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace workers in Seattle have ended their strike, as members approved a company pay raise offer. CEI labor policy…
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News Release
Congress Rushes to Judgment on Arsenic in Drinking Water
Washington, DC, July 27, 2001-Today the U.S. House of Representatives voted on an amendment to the appropriations bill to force the Environmental Protection…
Op-Eds
Clinton’s Legacy: Senate Dems Second-guess Bush for Second-guessing Clinton
Lieberman Op-Ed in National Review Online<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Senate Democrats are beginning to flex their majority muscles, and…
Op-Eds
Houston, Beware Bite of Mosquito Control Ruling
Copyright 2001 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Zambone Op-Ed in The Houston Chronicle In the aftermath of Tropical Storm…
Op-Eds
Sustainable Development? How About Sustainable Growth?
The economic news out of Europe is bad — again. The euro is trending lower. German business confidence is down. Once-optimistic growth forecasts are being…
News Release
CEI Comments to NRC on Arsenic
Competitive Enterprise Institute Competitive Enterprise Institute Comments to the Board of Environmental Studies and Toxicology National Research…
News Release
Report Shows a Stricter Arsenic Standard Could Harm Public Health
Washington, DC, May 21, 2001—The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Director of Risk and Environmental Policy and author of a new…
Study
Arsenic and Old Politics
View Full Document as PDF President George W. Bush has been taking a lot of heat for his decision to review the…
Products
Curbing Nature’s Destruction: Man-Made Chemicals Should Be Embraced Rather Than Vilified
Knowing that Nature never did betray the heart that loved her, modern society embraces the idea that all things “not natural”…
News Release
Bush Administration’s First 100 Days: A Report Card on Environmental Policy
Washington, DC, April 26, 2001— The Competitive Enterprise Institute today released grades for President Bush’s first 100 days of environmental policy. Many of…
News Release
CEI Commends Bush for Reviewing Drinking Water Rule
Washington, DC, April 23, 2001— The Competitive Enterprise Institute praised the Bush administration for its recent announcement that it will postpone the arsenic…
News Release
Media Advisory: Proponents of “Smart” Environmentalism Available for Earth Day
Washington, DC, April 17, 2001— As people around the world prepare to celebrate the 31st Earth Day, this Sunday, April 22nd, concerned individuals…
Products
Free Trade, Anyone? (Or, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Business Forum)
From the April 2001 CEI UpDate In Calvin Coolidge’s time, the business of America was business. In our time, the…
Products
Arsenic and Old Lies
From the April 2001 issue of CEI UpDate From the April 2001 issue of CEI UpDate …
News Release
Public Interest Groups Demand Real Free Trade in the Americas
Punta del Este, Uruguay, April 5, 2001— In a declaration signed today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute joined representatives…
News Release
Public Interest Group To Monitor FTAA Meeting in Buenos Aires
Washington, DC, March 30, 2001—When the countries involved in the Free Trade Area of the Americas process meet the first week of April,…
News Release
Environmental Risk Expert Responds to PBS Documentary on Chemicals
Washington, DC, March 27, 2001—The director of risk and environmental policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute is criticizing PBS for its…
Products
When Politics Kills: Malaria and the DDT Story
A recent New York Times article unveiled an interesting archaeological discovery: the earliest genetic evidence of malaria infection. According to the February 20…
Study
When Politics Kills: Malaria and the DDT Story
(This On Point is adapted from the paper, “When Politics Kills: Malaria and the DDT Story,” published by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, January 2001, and…
Op-Eds
Midnight Madness — Washington Style: Lieberman SD Union Tribune Op-Ed
The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Press of Atlantic City They’re called midnight regulations — the flood of federal regulatory activity occurring in the closing…
News Release
Lifesaving Chemical Escapes United Nations Ban
Washington, DC, December 13, 2000 – An international coalition of public health and advocacy groups applauded United Nations’ recent vote against erecting a…
Op-Eds
How Good Intentions Kill: Roger Bate Op-Ed in the Financial Times
Products
Of Monkeys and Millipedes
“I would much rather be descended from an ape, sir, than a bishop From the December issue of CEI UpDate…
Products
Midnight in the Garden of Regulatory Evil
From the December issue of CEI UpDate They’re called midnight regulations–the flood of federal regulatory activity occurring in the closing…
Op-Eds
Dana Joel Gattuso Brownfields Op-Ed in Washington Times
If egotism is “the art of seeing in yourself what others cannot see,” Vice President Al Gore is a master. He is…
Products
Pesticides and You, Puhfect Together? The Garden State’s Hands-Off Policy in Dealing with Deadly Mosquitos
In late July, the Federal Communiations Commission held a hearing on issues surrounding the America Online/Time Warner merger From the August/September…
Op-Eds
Internet, EPA and Terrorism? Logomasini Op-Ed in Washington Times
You know things are seriously wrong when taxpayers underwrite the costs of collecting and disseminating information that will Published in the Washington…
Op-Eds
Blood Supply Besieged: Logomasini Op-Ed in Washington Times
Published in the Washington Times Published in the Washington Times August 10, 2000 In a recent letter to the…
Op-Eds
On Importance of Vector Control: Zambone Letter to the Editor on the West Nile Virus
Published in The Record (Bergen County, NJ) Published in The Record (Bergen County, NJ) August 10, 2000 …
Products
A Plague of Regulators
A new regulatory plague is descending upon the land. While we as a nation have become more accomplished at fighting the plagues of…
Comment
CEI Expert Testifies on Trade and International Environment
Chairman Ros-Lehtinen, thank you for the invitation to testify here today on the important topic of the connections between international trade and…
News Release
EPA Limits Consumer Options in Control of Pests
Washington, DC, June 8, 2000 – “Today, EPA has begun its effort to regulate away the public’s ability to protect itself from disease-carrying…
News Release
NEW CEI BOOK: Free Market Environmental Reader Now Available
Ecology, Liberty & Property: A Free Market Environmental Reader Jonathan H. Adler, Editor Publication Date: Spring 2000Price: $16.95ISBN #1-889865-02-8 Click here to order Ecology, Liberty…
Study
Ecology, Liberty & Property
Ecology, Liberty & Property: A Free Market Environmental Reader Publication Date: Spring 2000Price: $16.95ISBN #1-889865-02-8 Are free markets and environmental protection compatible? Is…
Op-Eds
Introduction to ‘Ecology, Liberty, and Property’
The book "Ecology, Liberty, and Property: A Free Market Environmental Reader," edited by Jonathan H. Adler, was published by the Competitive Enterprise Institute in 2000.
Op-Eds
Free Trade Is Green Trade
Environmentalist objections to trade and proposals for the “greening” of trade are a fundamental assault on free trade principles. They also threaten environmental quality. Free…
News Release
EPA Rule Places Americans at Risk
June 1, 2000 – “Americans may face increased risks of contracting potentially deadly and debilitating diseases under a recently proposed rule,” said Jennifer…
News Release
Proposed EPA Rule Would Assist Terrorists
Washington, DC, June 1, 2000 – Activist groups will likely post information on the Internet that would help terrorists select targets and maximize…
Op-Eds
The Risks of Risk Regulation
Portions of the following are adapted from “Deadly Fallout of Too Many Rules” and “Regulated…Out of this World” in the Washington Times, June 2 and…
Products
Mosquitos and Misinformation Surround Malaria Scare
During this spring and summer, you will hear the sounds of many insects: the buzz of the bee, the chirp of the cricket, the…
News Release
New Earth in the Balance; Same Old Muddled Thinking
May 1, 2000 — Ah, how the time flies. It’s been 30 years since Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-WI) and company sponsored the first Earth…
Products
Kemp: Clean Up the Planet with Sound Science: The Earth Day Crowd Has It All Wrong
Is mankind the greatest threat to the earth, as Vice President Gore and Greenpeace would have us believe, or the best hope for stewardship?…
News Release
EPA Issues Worst Case Scenario Regulations
Washington, DC, April 26 – “Congress scored only a limited victory for public safety by ensuring that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) not…
Products
From Working Girl to Madam: Julia Roberts Procures for the Trial Lawyers
Julia Roberts played a working gal in her first motion picture hit, Pretty Woman. Her career appears to have reached new heights with her…
Products
You’ve Got Cancer!
Ladies, Don’t Be Fooled By Those Fear-Mongering E-mails Admit it. You’re deep into the mid-afternoon lull when you hear that carol of…
Products
The Green Man’s Burden
Call it a new noblesse oblige or the Green Man’s Burden. Whatever you call it, the desire of privileged western-world activists to keep poor,…
Study
Earth Report 2000
Earth Report 2000: Revisiting the True State of the Planet Date: 1999 Edited by: Ronald Bailey Published by: McGraw-Hill Earth Report 2000 is a…
Op-Eds
No: Well-Intentioned Boycotts Actually Make the Climb out of Grinding Poverty Even More Difficult
Someone once noted that the law was amazingly equitable – it forbids both the king and the pauper to sleep beneath the bridge! And…
Op-Eds
Africans Have Different Priorities: Ebere Akobundu Op-Ed in the International Herald Tribune
Published in the International Herald Tribune Published in the International Herald Tribune November 26, 1999 Priorities need to…
Products
More Sorry Than Safe
Products
Stop Banking on Failure: A Half Century Wasted at the World Bank
Op-Eds
The IMF Beyond Its Time
Recent scandals involving the International Monetary R Fund have prompted Congress to seek ways to reform the IMF’s lending practices. Rather than applying another bandage…
Op-Eds
Third Way Route Jams Trade: Kemp Op-Ed in Financial Times
There is an international movement hard at work to concentrate power over economic decision-making–public, private, and across national boundaries–in a “global elite” that is unaccountable…
News Release
EPA to Release Data on Worst Case Scenarios
Washington, DC, July 20, 1999 – “Unless the House of Representatives acts immediately, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will soon release information that essentially…
Study
The Data Access Law: Promoting Accountability and Privacy
With the passage of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 1966, our society decided to promote government transparency: what is done in government’s name…
Study
The Data Access Law: Decreasing Secret Science While Increasing Accountability
As the federal bureaucracy grows and Congress delegates more of its power to the agencies, the need for agency accountability increases. In October…
Study
Alternative to Kyoto Protocol Concedes Too Much
View Full Document as PDF The Energy and Climate Policy Act of 1999, S. 882, has been introduced as an alternative…
Study
The Clean Air Act’s Federal Terrorist Assistance Program
View Full Document as PDF In recent years the United States has experienced the horrors of the terrorist attack of a…
News Release
CEI Blasts EPA’s “Worst Case Scenario” Info Release: Proposed Amendment Can Deter Terrorists, Extremists Groups Want I
Washington, DC, May 6, 1999 – The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee may consider an amendment today to the federal Clean Air Act…
News Release
CEI Blasts EPA’s “Worst Case Scenario” Info Release: Proposed Amendment Can Deter Terrorists, Extremists Groups Want I
Washington, DC, May 6, 1999 – The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee may consider an amendment today to the federal Clean Air Act…
News Release
Jack Kemp Named Distinguished Fellow At Competitive Enterprise Institute
Washington, DC, April 29, 1999 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute is pleased to announce that the Honorable Jack Kemp has been named CEI’s first…
News Release
Administration Honors Scientist, But Ignores His Work
Washington, DC, April 27, 1999 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) today congratulates Dr. Bruce Ames for his receipt of the National Medal of…
News Release
Risk And Environmental Information: Federal Data Mandates, Mandates to Misinform
Information is a valuable tool, but sometimes misinformation is more powerful. As we approach Earth Day 1999, CEI observes the state of environmental information…
News Release
Media Advisory: Earth Day Experts
Most Americans want a clean environment. That is no surprise. What surprises traditional environmental activists is that most people don’t support extensive federal regulation.
Study
The First Family’s Asthma Problems
View Full Document as PDF Both Bill and Hillary Clinton are taking actions that will affect the nation’s six million asthmatic…
Op-Eds
DOJ Gets No Credit For Visa Complaint: Case Will Stifle Bank Card Innovation
The specter of the U.S. Department of Justice as "social engineer" — seeking to shape markets into a narrow and static mold of…
Study
Save Methyl Bromide
A battle is raging in Washington between farmers and environmental regulators. At issue is the chemical methyl bromide, and the outcome could affect…
Products
The EPA’S Latest Injustice
Convent is a small, relatively poor town in St. James Parish, Louisiana, that lies along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
Study
Why the UN Desertification Treaty is All Wet
After his recent visit to Africa’s Kalahari Desert, President Bill Clinton proclaimed himself “a greener person” and called for Senate ratification of the United…
Study
EPA’s Asthma Miasma
Is the Environmental Protection Agency a friend or enemy of asthmatic children? It all depends on which issue the agency is peddling.
Products
Bail Out For The Foolish
My Daddy always said never get between a fool and his mistake – it would sacrifice the only good that might come from the…
News Release
Mammoth Victory For Elephant Conservation At CITES
HARARE, ZIMBABWE, Thursday, June 19, 1997 — The ivory ban has ended for three southern African nations, despite intense opposition from the U.S. government.
Products
Precautionary Petard
The Precautionary Principle – the proposition that new technologies or products should not be permitted until we know they won't endanger health, safety, or…
Products
Chemical Weapons Convention Sell-out
Not since "read-my-lips" George Bush raised taxes and destroyed his presidency has a Republican leader so soiled the GOP's claim to be a party of…
News Release
Earth Day Tragedy: Flawed Environmental Treaty Dumps on Third World
WASHINGTON, DC April 22, 1997 —The Basel Convention, a United Nations treaty which regulates world trade, is due to ban all trade in “wastes”…
News Release
Red Tape Will Hinder Trade: Study Questions Environmental and Economic Benefits of ISO14000
WASHINGTON, DC March 22, 1997—Imposing mandatory uniform environmental standards on industrial firms will result in both environmental and economic harm according to a study…
Products
Tyranno-Soros
It always makes me queasy when a successful capitalist uses his wealth and talent to sell anti-capitalism. Not because such behavior is a form of…
News Release
Third World Rebuffs Clinton Green Team
The Clinton administration suffered a major setback in its efforts to incorporate environmental restrictions into world trade rules with the completion of talks in the…
Study
Trashing Free Trade: The Basel Convention’s Impact
Executive Summary With the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995, free trade should be on the rise. The WTO has been heralded…
Op-Eds
Trashing Free Trade: The Basel Convention’s Impact on International Commerce
Trashing Free Trade: The Basel Convention’s Impact on International Commerce by James M. Sheehan With the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995,…
Products
Free Trade for All
Massachusetts Governor William Weld, running in a tight Senate race against Senator John Kerry, recently came out in favor of a protectionist trade ban against…
Products
Message From the President: Unsustainable Policies
In March the President’s Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD), made up of governmental, environmental and business leaders, presented to President Clinton its final report, Sustainable…
Products
The Mismeasure of Man
The environmentalist assault on chlorine has taken a recent turn. Organochlorines, we are now told, not only cause cancer, they are capable of altering human…
Products
Rachel Was Wrong
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring ushered in an era of national concern over the potential effects of synthetic chemicals. Published in 1962, Carson's book suggested that…
Study
Two Years After NAFTA: A Free Market Critique and Assessment
Full Document Available in PDF The debate over the…
Op-Eds
Restricting Trade Will Not Help The Environment
Full Article Available in PDF Format Executive Summary Expanding free trade to include all nations could have beneficial effects…
Study
The Basel Convention
The Basel Convention by Ray Evans …
Op-Eds
Making the Polluters Pay
Environmentalists often call for a world with zero pollution. The response from industry and professional economists is disbelief. Who is right? That depends…
Study
The True State Of The Planet
The True State of the Planet: Ten of the World’s Premier Environmental Researchers in a Major Challenge to the Environmental Movement Date: 1995 Edited…
Study
The Greening Of Trade Policy: “Sustainable Development” and Global Trade
Executive Summary Introduction The Environmental Critique of Trade Free Trade and Environmental Quality Free Markets Are Truly Green Focus on Global Environment Fosters Ecological…
Op-Eds
Trading Away Free Trade
Full article is available in PDF (Liberty magazine, November 1994, pp. 22-26). The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade has lowered the world’s…
Op-Eds
The Market and Nature
(Originally appeared in The Freeman, September 1993) Many environmentalists are dissatisfied with the environmental record of free economies. Capitalism, it is claimed, is…
Op-Eds
Environmental Policy at the Crossroads
Full Chapter Available in PDF Format Executive Summary It has always been with us, and…
Op-Eds
How the IMF Could Become a Real S&P for International Debt
Should the U.S, donate an added $8.4 billion- to the International Monetary Fund? IMF opponents, of course, answer “No,” They claim that increased- IMF funding…