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
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…
Newsweek
US Industrial Output To Be Worst Hit Globally by Trump Tariffs
Newsweek cited CEI’s expert on tariffs Ryan Young, senior economist at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, previously told Newsweek: “Tariff-related shipping slowdowns will cause a regional cascade…
News Release
Economy shrinks following Trump tariffs: CEI analysis
America’s GDP shrank during the first quarter of 2025 following President Trump’s spate of trade tariffs imposed on various countries in his first 100…
Search Posts
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Sen. Rockefeller: FCC Should Take Fox News, MSNBC Off Airways: “SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D-WV): “There’s a little bug inside of me which…
Blog
Morning Media Summary
Tech: Internet Explorer 9 Caught Cheating in SunSpider Benchmark?: “A Mozilla engineer has uncovered something embarrassing for Microsoft – Internet Explorer is cheating…
Blog
Spitzer, Seoul, and Wall Street
Eliot Spitzer, who occasionally publishes over at Slate, wrote yesterday about President Obama’s “disastrous Asia trip” and decried America’s fall from grace as a world leader.
Blog
Morning Media Summary
Tech: University Begins Reporting All P2P Users to the Police: “Georgia’s Valdosta State University has updated its network with software that can…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Cubans upset at video game that aims to kill Fidel Castro: “Cuba’s state-run media and bloggers are not amused at “Call of…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Brumby promises every doctor in public hospitals an iPad: “Victorian Premier, John Brumby, yesterday promised every doctor in the…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Dear Starbucks: The skinny on how you can be a security hero: “The recent hubbub around Firesheep has provided me with a…
Blog
Russia’s Frozen Poulty Ban — Not Likely a Path for WTO Membership
Russia will be banning frozen chicken imports beginning January 1. The reason for the proposed ban? The head of the Russian agency in charge…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: LimeWire Resurrected By Secret Dev Team: “Last month, the Gnutella-based file-sharing client LimeWire was effectively outlawed after a U.S. federal judge granted…
Blog
Will Trade Be a Winner in the New Congress?
In its Sunday editorial, The Washington Post takes an upbeat post-election look at the prospects for stalled trade agreements, especially the pending U.S.-Korea Free…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Lamebook Sues Facebook Over Trademark Infringement. Wait, What?: “Here’s a head scratcher, at first glance at least: Lamebook , a hilarious advertising-supported…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: People have “right to be forgotten” online, says EU: “The European Commission wants to strengthen data protection rules to give more power…
Blog
Should Geoengineering be Banned?
Since one day the sun will expand into a red-giant star, humans in the distant multi-millennial future will either have to leave the Earth, geoengineer…
Blog
Morning Media Summary
Tech: Privacy Commissioner slams data retention: “The Australian Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim has slammed the Federal Government’s proposed data retention law and called…
Blog
Rare Earths — Not So Rare?
What do yttrium, ytterbium, erbium and terbium have in common? They are rare earth elements first found in the Swedish town of Ytterby between 1828…
Blog
Increase in American Corruption May Have Been Understated
Earlier, I wrote about how America had slipped to a historic low on the Global Corruption Index, becoming more corrupt. In retrospect, I think…
Blog
Morning Media Summary
Tech: Free E-Books, With a Catch – Advertising: “Barnes & Noble may kick off a fresh price war today…
Blog
Global Food Crisis Forecast; Aggravated by Biofuels and Global Warming Legislation
A global food crisis is “forecast as prices reach record highs.” “Rising food prices and shortages could cause instability in many countries as the…
Blog
Hugo Chavez Steals More Productive Sectors of the Venezuelan Economy
CBS is reporting today that Hugo Chavez “ordered the expropriation of U.S.-based glass maker Owens-Illinois Inc.’s unit in the South American country.” This is…
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Stalled Korea FTA May Get a Boost
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk is scheduled to meet today with Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon in San Francisco to discuss the pending U.S.-Korea…
Blog
The Nobel Case for Immigration
In today's American Spectator, my colleague Alex Nowrasteh and I make the case for expanding skilled immigration.
Blog
Mysteries of the Liberal Mind: Inmate Voting Good, Soldiers Voting Bad
Liberal judges insist that it’s racist to keep prison inmates from voting, because inmates are disproportionately members of minority groups. See the dissents of liberal…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Bees’ tiny brains beat computers, study finds: “Bees can solve complex mathematical problems which keep computers busy for days, research has…
Blog
Bureaucrats Disenfranchise Overseas Troops
Illinois officials missed the deadline to mail ballots to U.S. troops overseas, but they hand-delivered ballots to inmates, without even waiting for inmates…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Google in new partnership with the Post: “We live in an evolving market and is going from being a letter to the…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Canada Says Google Wi-Fi Sniffing Collected Personal Data: “Canada’s privacy commissioner said Tuesday that Google’s recent Wi-Fi sniffing was a serious violation…
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Exploiting the Poor: International Trade
On last week’s Stossel (no video available yet), was mentioned that rich countries gain their wealth through the exploitation of poor countries. Professor Marc Hill of Columbia University…
Blog
Morning Media Summar
Tech: Privacy vs. Profits: “The threat to privacy posed by digital technology is about to take a turn for the worse. At least,…
Blog
China Might Halt Rare Earth Exports
The New York Times reports: “China Said to Halt Some Mineral Shipments.” HONG KONG — China, which has been blocking shipments of crucial minerals…
Blog
Obama’s Nativist Scare Tactics May Backfire on Him
President Obama has made the baseless claim that the Chamber of Commerce is spending foreign money on political campaigns. This claim was widely disseminated…
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The East German Immigration Model
A U.S. Senate candidate in Alaska thinks that the U.S. should follow East Germany's example when it comes to immigration.
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: The World is Full of Interesting Things: “That’s the name of a brilliant slideshow created by Google’s Creative Labs. You’ll find a…
Blog
Democrats Took the Most Foreign Money
It turns out that Democrats have taken twice as much foreign money in this election cycle as Republicans. They’ve taken “more than $1 million…
Blog
China Mocks U.S. Over Subsidy Investigation
An update to Friday’s post: Bloomberg (and the The New York Times) reported this weekend on China’s response to U.S. accusations…
Blog
Morning Media Summary
Tech: Facebook in Privacy Breach: “Many of the most popular applications, or “apps,” on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting…
Blog
A Potentially Bold Fiscal Policy Experiment in U.K.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Conservative government of Prime Minister David Cameron plans to cut 192 independent government agencies in an…
Blog
“Illegal” Green Energy Subsidies
In a move that surprised no one, The New York Times reported today that the U.S. agreed to go ahead and formally investigate…
Blog
Morning Media Summary
Tech: Putting the squeeze on the broadband copper robbers: “When we think of tech crime, we tend to imagine hackers cooking up exploits…
Blog
Why Trade and War Are Different
Over at the American Spectator's AmspecBlog, I highlight why real wars and trade wars are very, very different…
Blog
Morning Media Summary
The following is a roundup of the morning’s media. We hope you will make a daily stop at Open Market to read the latest updates.
Blog
Betancourt: Revolutions Not So Nice
After six years in FARC captivity deep in Colombia’s jungle, Ingrid Betancourt is over revolution and ready for cake. From the NPR story…
Blog
Stimulus Money Went to Prisoners and Dead People
17,000 prison inmates received checks courtesy of the $800 billion stimulus package, notes the Associated Press. $18 million in checks went to dead…
Blog
CEI Weekly: United Auto Workers Shut Down GM Plant
CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI staff. This week features Vincent Vernuccio's October 1st interview on Fox Business' Varney &…
Blog
CEI Podcast – October 7, 2010: Trade, Jobs, and Korea
CEI Adjunct Fellow Fran Smith talks about the EU-Korea free trade agreement that takes effect next year, and why the US-Korea FTA stalled, to the…
Blog
Skilled Immigrants: More, Please
For every H-1B position requested, U.S. technology firms increase their employment by five workers. The government's artificial limit on skilled immigration is prolonging the recession.
Blog
EU-Korea Trade Pact Will Hurt U.S. Without its Own FTA
As the European Union signs a trade pact with South Korea, U.S. manufacturers are calling on policymakers to approve the U.S.-Korea Free Trade…
Blog
Job Losses and Productivity Gains
I came across this chart tracking U.S. manufacturing jobs and U.S. productivity over the past 38 years (posted yesterday by Mark Perry). It’s worth…
Citation
No Chickening Out on Trade Retaliation
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Take a Look at U.S. Tariffs – They Raise Costs and Restrict Choice
With so much focus on “unfair” trade vis-à-vis U.S. trade partners, especially China, it’s sometimes sobering to look at protectionist U.S. policies that restrict…
Blog
New EPA Rules Will Cost More than 800,000 Jobs
New EPA rules will cost more than 800,000 jobs, probably far more, according to a newly released congressional report. That includes the EPA’s…
