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
Blog
Inconvenient Evidence Suppressed in EU-Intel Antitrust Case
The EU’s top antitrust regulator intentionally suppressed “potentially exculpatory" evidence in its case against Intel. This is the rule of men, not law.
Blog
Liberal Congressional Leaders Buy Luxury Jets, Trash the Environment
Congress plans to spend $200 million on luxury jets for liberal House leaders, even though it earlier denounced the automakers for having corporate…
Blog
Union Bosses Say the Darndest Things
As described in an OpenMarket post by CEI’s Ivan Osorio a couple weeks ago, the Teamsters union and UPS are currently lobbying Congress to…
Blog
Chuck Schumer: “We’ve Got to Stand Still”
High-frequency stock trading — the markets where sophisticated algorithms running on bleeding edge hardware trade assets using information only fractions of a second old —…
Blog
British Government Pays Lobbyists to Lobby It on Climate Change
More proof that government does things better! In traditional “astroturfing,” a company would pay a PR firm to set up a fake grassroots organization aimed…
Blog
The Right to a Green Job?
Demand for wind turbine blades in Europe has slipped, apparently, so a British company that makes them, Vestas, has plans to let go 625 workers…
Blog
Turn out the lights, the party’s over… and tomorrow start the same old thing again.
Cuba has become more and more destitute since the revolution and has fallen on hard times since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a period…
Blog
Billions More for Wasteful Auto Bailouts
The auto bailouts keep expanding. Billions more are going to be spent on wealthy auto-dealers, cash-for-clunkers, politically-correct cars few people will buy, and excessive benefits…
Blog
Penn and Teller on Organics
The irreverent and hilarious comedians Penn and Teller have produced another episode of their television show Bullshit about organic foods. Friends of CEI, Ron Bailey…
Blog
The Obama’s Administration’s Strange Double Standards on Hate Crimes, Terrorism, and Health Care: Soft on the Guilty, Cruel to the Innocent, Unfair to Taxpayers
When black panthers were caught on videotape menacing white voters in Philadelphia, using nightsticks and racial epithets to drive them away from the polls,…
Newsletter
The Microhoo Deal, Food Safety Bills and Free Trade with Korea
Analysts speculate about the future of the Microsoft’s rivalry with Google in the wake of a major new deal with Yahoo. Food safety bills move…
Blog
In Which Greed Is Good
The great economist Joseph Schumpeter wrote that "[F]ree trade is the cement that holds together the idea of peace." His logic is sound. Commerce gives…
Blog
Russia introduces strict new antitrust law
Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev has signed into law amendments that will bring increased penalties for price collusion and unfair competition. The new amendments will allow…
Blog
UBS v. IRS saga continues
Today, Wall Street Journal reports that a Miami court has set meeting Friday between the IRS and UBS to look at…
Blog
Movement on the U.S.-Korea FTA?
It looks like things may be moving – slowly — on the trade front. The U. S. Trade Representative has published a notice in…
Blog
Obama Backs Imperial Presidency
Obama is backing an imperial presidency in Honduras. When Honduras removed its ex-president and would-be dictator, Obama demanded his reinstatement, even though he…
Op-Eds
Now an Obama Adviser Criticizes Health Care Reform
Obama’s health-care plan is drawing criticism from one of his own advisers, Harvard University’s Martin Feldstein. In today’s Washington Post, Feldstein warns that “For…
Blog
The People’s Phone
Venezuela’s increasingly ridiculous strongman, Hugo Chavez, would be funny if not for the misery and repression he continues to impose upon his own citizens. From…
Blog
Obama Health-Care Plan Would Take Away 5 Important Freedoms, CNN Says; Obama Would Also Raise Taxes, End Affordable Plans, and Break Promises
CNN notes that there are “5 freedoms you’d lose in health care reform” as promoted by the Obama Administration: the freedom to choose your…
Blog
The Washington Post’s Conflicted Take on Honduras and the OAS
That the Organization of American States has squandered whatever credibility it had should be obvious to all by now — and it’s not just right…
Blog
CEI Weekly: Attack of the National Broadband Plans
CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blog posts from CEI's fellows and associates sent out via e-mail every Friday.
Blog
Obama Health-Care Plan Destroys Cheap Health-Care Options, Raises Taxes, Breaks Promises
In 2008, Obama promised not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year. But he is now breaking that promise by…
Blog
Santacruz in Forbes: “Toxic Revenge”
In today’s Forbes, CEI Warren Brookes Fellow Silvia Santacruz talks about the lawsuit against Chevron-Texaco in Ecuador.
Blog
1+1=2
By introducing new regulations the Congress together with major airlines are discouraging us to travel. While the Congress is deciding on how to regulate the…
Blog
In Which the Case for Antitrust Action against Telecoms Weakens
New research finds that U.S. telecoms are charging, on average, ten cents less per minute than their counterparts around the world. Tell me again why…
Blog
“Farming” for dollars in the EU
Most of us knew that the European Union’s system of farm subsidies, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) gives out huge amounts to farmers in the…
Blog
CEI Weekly: Response to EPA Cover Up Increases
CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blog posts from CEI's fellows and associates sent out via e-mail every Friday. Also included in the…
Blog
Yeatman: “A Real Choice on Climate Change: Do Nothing”
In today’s RealClearWorld, CEI Energy Policy Analyst, William Yeatman, talks about international attempts at climate diplomacy. Read…
Newsletter
White House Science Czar, Catfish Imports and Gingrich’s “Real” Stimulus
Critics question the controversial beliefs of White House science adviser John Holdren. U.S. catfish producers try to block inexpensive fish imports from Vietnam. Former House…
Blog
Cold friendship
It has been almost 20 years since the end of the Cold War yet the agenda of the U.S.-Russia summit remains unchanged. In the middle…
Blog
Fishy Politics May Harm US Consumers
The various US attempts to hobble the Vietnamese farmed-catfish industry is no less underhanded. And, in order to prevent a trade war with Vietnam, it…
Blog
Obama’s “Willful Disregard of Political Oppression” by Anti-American Dictators Is Admitted by Liberal Washington Post
Obama has demanded that Honduras allow its anti-American would-be dictator, Mel Zelaya, to return to power, arguing that President Zelaya’s removal by the Honduras…
Op-Eds
What About Trade
RE: “Obama and Medvedev pledge to scale back nuclear arsenals" (Page A1, July 7). It has been almost 20 years since the end…
Blog
Church Leaders, Senators Oppose Forcing Honduras to Reinstate Ousted President and Would-Be Dictator
Honduran church leaders, and 17 U.S. Senators, are now opposing outside pressure on Honduras to reinstate the corrupt president that it ousted…
Blog
Forza Italia!
Italy’s Senate has overturned a 1987 ban on nuclear power, passed in panic after Chernobyl. This is good news for Italians, as they face…
Blog
CEI Weekly: Firsthand At the Tea Party
CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blog posts from CEI's fellows and associates sent out via e-mail every Friday. Also included in the…
Blog
Leading trade lawyer: real problems with carbon tariffs
Leading trade lawyer Gary Horlick testified yesterday on carbon tariffs before the Senate Finance Committee. As the Senate prepares an energy suppression/global warming bill,…
Blog
Obama Nominee: Corrupt Foreign Rulers Have Right to Remain in Office Until They Receive “Judicial Process”
Arturo Valenzuela, Obama’s nominee to be Assistant Secretary of State, falsely claims it was an illegal “coup” for Honduras to remove its corrupt would-be…
Blog
Igniting Agricultural Innovation
"Biotechnology applied to agriculture has enormous potential to enhance our ability to develop seeds for improved crops and for enhanced livestock to enable us to…
Blog
Antitrust Irony
Microsoft is having a tense antitrust discussion with the EU. Meanwhile, Google is readying an operating system to directly compete with Windows. Compare and contrast.
Blog
Blight Hits East Coast, Capitalism Saves the Day
There are many reasons for free-market advocates to be unhappy about current affairs. With numerous pieces of legislation being proposed to put shackles on our…
Blog
Obama: “Universal Principle” Gives Presidents the Right to Keep Ruling Even If They Violate the Law
Honduras removed its would-be dictator, President Mel Zelaya, for violating his country’s constitution by seeking to extend his term in office, and replaced him with…
Blog
Killing Bill
In today’s Washington Examiner, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ran an ad where its President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue warns that the Waxman-Markey climate…
Blog
Regulation of the Day: The Price of Shrimp
The ITA has been upset for some time that a Thai shrimp exporter is selling shrimp cheaply; hungry consumers have had no complaints.
Blog
Will Obama Blackmail Honduras Into Installing Would-Be Dictator?
Obama is quite wrong to claim that the removal of Zelaya was "illegal." The Honduran president forfeited his right to rule under the Honduran Constitution.
Blog
“Obama stands with tyrants,” “Sides with Chavez, Castro against Honduran Democracy,” Newspapers Say
“Obama stands with tyrants,” writes the Washington Times. “When thousands of Iranians flooded the streets of Tehran protesting a rigged election and were…
Blog
Alexis Arguello, RIP
Three-time champion and Boxing Hall of Famer Alexis Arguello was found dead of a gunshot would this morning, at his home in Managua, Nicaragua, of…
Blog
Obama Backs Dictatorship in Honduras
Honduras removed its bullying, autocratic President after he began behaving as a dictator, and its Congress replaced him with a less power-hungry member of…
Blog
“Saving the world?”
So many people declare that they want to “save the world!” A candidate for Miss Universe declared that to be the main purpose of her…
Blog
Obama Blunders in Honduras and Afghanistan
The U.S. is meddling in Honduras to prop up an anti-American ruler backed by Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. After Honduran president Manuel Zelaya attempted…
