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
The forced labor fig leaf
The cardinal rule of President Trump’s trade policy is that he just likes tariffs. Any intellectual justification is just rationalizing his gut feelings.
Blog
Section 338: Trump’s latest tariff tool could send trade policy uncertainty soaring
Just when businesses thought they had enough tariff uncertainty to manage, another chapter emerges. By turning a nearly century-old provision of trade law into…
News Release
Trump pivot to Section 338 for tariffs poses problems for economy, separation of powers
Citing Section 338 of the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, President Donald Trump on July 20 announced steep 50 percent tariffs on Canadian goods,…
Search Posts
Blog
European Environment Agency–stuck in a mental rut
In a report titled “Beyond Transport Policy,” the European Environment Agency (EEA) bemoans the fact that European transport sector CO2 emissions increased by 26% during…
Blog
Environmental Policies Kill – Again!
One of the main themes of my book, The Really Inconvenient Truths, is that misguided environmental policies often lead to humanitarian and environmental disaster.
Blog
The Prince and the Paupers
I still regard myself as a loyal subject of Her Britannic Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, but it’s hard not to come over all Cromwellian when…
Blog
Tilting at Food Safety Windmills
Unfortunately, as long as the world's food production system continues to be highly decentralized and fragmented, there will continue to be foodborne illness outbreaks like…
Op-Eds
Protectionism is the embrace of fear, the rejection of hope
In the context of America’s $17-trillion economy, $12-trillion national debt and $4-trillion federal budget, a few billion dollars worth of international trade doesn’t sound…
Blog
Support for Stimulus Collapses Internationally
Rasmussen reports that support for the borrow-and-spend plan is falling rapidly: The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 37% favor the…
Newsletter
Stimulus Trade Wars, Smart Grids and Bank Nationalization
Lawmakers propose applying a “buy American” restriction to projects funded by the economic stimulus package. Energy companies lobby for subsidies for a national “smart” electrical…
Blog
Stimulus Plan Repeats Mistakes That Spawned Great Depression
The European Union is threatening a trade war over provisions in the $800 billion “stimulus” package backed by Obama and Congressional leaders. The Great…
Blog
Liveblog of Al Gore Climate Hearing
No TV station seems to be covering this live, but you can watch here. Kerry in his introduction says “if there was a…
Blog
When the Irreversible Effects Meet the Immovable Policy
Apparently, global warming is now irreversible. Or, at least, it is if you don’t consider any of the policy options that might, you know,…
Blog
Stimulus to Hunger
Great. Now USDA head Tom Vilsack is saying the US ethanol industry needs to be protected in the borrow-and-spend bill, and beyond:…
News Release
CEI Unveils Agenda for Congress
Washington, D.C., January 26, 2009—With the incoming Obama administration and the opening of the new Congress, the House and Senate are…
Blog
Waste Not, Want Not … Or Else!
The British government is looking after its people, in a motherly sort of way. It plans to send government officials door-to-door to tell people not to…
Blog
The Daddy Knows Best Inaugural Address
Fatal conceit alert! Here’s the text of the Inaugural Address, with some comments from your humble servant. For everywhere we look, there is work…
Blog
Britain Prays for Obama Miracle
With a trillion dollar national debt, a currency crisis and their own bank bailout having conclusively failed, Britain is on the edge of bankruptcy. That…
National Association of Manufacturers
Obama and the Keynesian Revival
The National Association of Manufacturers discusses Iain Murray's National Review article on Obama's Keyenesian revival. Iain Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute makes…
Blog
Ecuador’s Mining Law and the 70% WFT
Ecuador, the only Latin American country that lacks large-scale mining operations, is passing a new mining law that will lift a six-month ban on mining…
Blog
Elephantine Mistake
In the 80s and 90s, Zimbabwean elephant management was a magnificent illustration of how property rights and markets combine to protect and even…
Blog
The Bureaucratic Mind at Work
In an increasingly rare example of investigative journalism, the UK Times finds a ‘ghost bus’ designed to spare ministers’ blushe. The bus, which is…
Blog
Amazing How Many People in Europe are Sick
Europe has a very generous social welfare system--basically, just say you aren't feeling quite right, and you get paid. Surprise, surprise ... people take advantage…
Blog
Soderbergh: Historically Illiterate or Willfully Ignorant?
In a new interview, Steven Soderbergh, the incredibly overrated Hollywood director whose new paean to the disgusting Che Guevara is getting a lot…
Blog
Thousands Die After Zimbabwe Dictator Nationalizes Water Systems
Thousands of people have died of cholera in Zimbabwe after the country’s left-wing dictator Robert Mugabe nationalized municipal water systems to seize their revenue,…
Blog
Nationalized Health Care: Growing the Nanny State
Advocates of the Nanny State have long been with us. What was Prohibition but an early manifestation of government treating everyone as children to protect…
Blog
The EU Propaganda Machine
Government propaganda is always irritating, especially because that means politicians are taxing citizens to pay for a snow job for those same citizens. The European…
Blog
More Money For Your Mattress
America's biggest maker of mattress springs has been hard at work...in Washington. After all that work, the Department of Commerce is in bed with the…
Blog
On Stalin’s Endurance
In a recent poll conducted in Russia on who is the “greatest” Russian ever, Joseph Stalin came in third (after Alexander Nevsky, who repelled…
Blog
Remember, the Government Wants to Manage Your Health Care!
Just think how wonderful it would be if government guaranteed everyone health care. Just like in Great Britain! Just ask Lynne Neilson what she thinks…
National Association of Manufacturers
15 Years of NAFTA
Products
CEI Planet: January – February 2009
View the new Montly Planet by downloading the PDF of the issue. Below you’ll find previews of the articles in this issue: From The…
Blog
Gold Is Not the Enemy – Poverty Is
National Geographic magazine has published an article titled The Price of Gold focusing on the high price of gold and the…
American Spectator
The Myth of Buying Local
Buying local has always been a popular sentiment, but the movement has picked up steam in recent years. Especially this holiday season, consumers are being…
Blog
Ron Kirk’s Texas origins may temper trade stance
Selecting former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk as the nominee for U.S. Trade Representative sends a signal that perhaps President-elect Obama will temper his anti-trade…
Blog
Killing Without the Smile
The National Health Service loves to save money. Too bad that means denying essential medical care and killing patients. But what’s a bureaucracy for? The…
Blog
How Do Regulations Stack Up as a Small Firm Grows?
Tomorrow, electric utilities and green groups team up at the National Press Club to ask for billions of new spending on what they term energy…
Blog
Solis: Could have been worse…but not much
According to the Associated Press, President-elect Barack Obama is about to name Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) as Secretary of Labor. If Rep. Solis’s voting…
Blog
China’s Economic “Boost”
Recently, the Chinese government released a plan to “boost” the Chinese money supply and stimulate the economy. Unlike Americans, people in China actually save…
Blog
EU Climate Agreement All Smoke and Mirrors
So if the EU has just put together an agreement to reduce emissions by 20% by 2020, why are the climate alarmist groups calling it…
Newsletter
Auto Bailout, Global Warming Controversy and Free Trade
Senators vote down a bailout proposal for U.S. auto companies. Czech President Vaclav Klaus criticizes a new European agreement on global warming as “a silly…
Blog
Jimmy Carter Disowns the Dictator Mugabe, His Frankenstein
After years of criticizing supposedly “unilateral” American military intervention in places like Iraq (where the U.S. was actually acting in concert with other countries, like…
Blog
U.S. and Latin America need closer ties
Four former presidents of Latin American countries and the former president of Spain joined in an ardent plea for the U.S.
Blog
Protecting Pets Before People
Why do advocates of socialized medicine prefer pets over people? It’s hard not to conclude that’s the way they think. After all, in Canada you…
Blog
Forbes China’s 100 richest
Each year, Forbes magazine produces a list of the 100 richest people in China. But no rich people would like to appear in…
Blog
Effective Health Care Cost Containment
With the Obama administration preparing to address the problem of health care, they should remember that the most effective form of cost containment is to…
Blog
An Old Joke
But still a good and classic one. In 1949, only Socialism could save China. In 1979, only Capitalism could save China. In…
Blog
Rule of Law at Stake in the UK
Yesterday the UK saw a large group of protesters bring a major London airport to a halt. Plane Stupid (you can’t get them for false…
Blog
To world leaders: halt the spread of protectionism
It’s timely and needed — a new publication gives leading trade economists’ views on “What world leaders must do to halt the spread…
Blog
Bureaucrats are the Same the World Over
You’ve got to love the European Union. It took the federal government decades to become so extraordinarily bureaucratic, wasteful, and out of touch. The EU…
Blog
The Wonders of Socialized Medicine, Part LXVI
The Daily Mail reminds us how government health care is compassionate and efficient; So imagine my shock when I saw how some nurses recently…
Newsletter
Bottled Water for the Homeless, Challenging NAFTA and Green-on-Green Violence
North Carolina officials pass out winter aid kits to the homeless. Barack Obama’s presumptive pick for trade representative suggests that the U.S. should renegotiate the…
Newsletter
Endangered Species, International Trade and the Auto Bailout
President Bush pardons a Missouri farmer found guilty of accidently causing the deaths of bald eagles under the Endangered Species Act. Barack Obama considers Rep.
