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
Illiberalism: The bipartisan tradition
After experiencing the horrors of World War I and fearing a second World War could be imminent, Ludwig von Mises wrote Liberalism: The Classical…
Blog
Good and bad trade news: Jones Act suspension, but more tariffs on the way
Two conflicting bits of trade news came out yesterday. The good news is that the Trump administration is considering temporarily suspending the Jones Act,…
Blog
Tariffs and inflation: Response to latest CPI release
On February 13th, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most recent CPI release showed a 0.2 percent month-to-month increase for January and a 2.4 percent…
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Blog
Rahm Emanuel and trade — there’s hope
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) has accepted President-elect Barack Obama’s offer to serve as his chief of staff in the White House. Depending…
Blog
Perspective on trade in the Obama Administration
During the presidential primaries and in the campaigns, there was a lot of rhetoric about the need for “fair” trade instead of free trade.
Op-Eds
Danny Finkelstein is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong about the US elections
Iain Murray is Director of Projects and Analysis at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think-tank in Washington DC. The…
Blog
Congratulations on Obama Win from My Marxist Father-in-Law in France
My father-in-law, a Marxist trade unionist and former Trotskyite candidate for the French Parliament, called me up last night at 2 a.m. to congratulate me…
Blog
Oil Prices Plunge Hits Ecuador
Today's Washington Times features an article on Ecuador “Economic Crisis Starts to Show up in Ecuador”, in which author John Zarocostas…
Blog
The Boring EU: Sending Itself Into Space
If you go to Brussels you see how seriously the Eurocrats take their mission to bureaucratize the entire continent. It is as bad as Washington,…
Blog
Market Health Care Reforms in Europe
While the U.S. seems to continue its slow slide towards socialized health care, patients currently suffering under such systems around the world are clamoring for…
Blog
FreeRoots
Some of the brightest minds in the online conservative movement — John Hawkins, Patrick Ruffini and Mark Tapscott — are discussing what…
Blog
Fighting Global Warming Amidst a Snowstorm
The Brits have quite a reputation. Stiff upper limit and all that. Which may account for the picture of parliament debating global warming legislation in…
Blog
Depressed by Regulation in America? Look at Europe!
You’ve got to love the Europeans. They demonstrate that things always can get worse. For instance, think about the epidemic of stupid farmers who use…
Blog
My apologies to the Swiss (hold firm against OECD meddling)
Last week, the German government said that Switzerland should be placed on the international blacklist…
Blog
O’Grady hits Obama’s trade policy
More good reads in the WSJ today. Mary Anastasia O’Grady in her column in the Wall Street Journal provides a sharp contrast between…
Newsletter
Internet Censorship, Reforming Fannie and Freddie and Free Trade with Colombia
American tech companies announce new guidelines for doing business in nations threatened by censorship. Lawmakers urge embattled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to…
Blog
U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement Stirs in Its Sleep
The stalled U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement has become a campaign issue in Florida’s 25th District, which is home to a substantial Colombian-American population. Rep.
Citation
Free Market Groups Launch Website to Move “Beyond Bailouts” Toward Fiscal Solvency
Newsletter
Stimulus Redux, Benefits of Bottled Water and the Pro-Poverty Left
Senators consider a second round of taxpayer-financed economic stimulus. Bottled water producers attempt to work constructively with environmental groups that have called for additional taxes…
Blog
British Health (Mis)Care: No Complaints Allowed
The British government has found the right strategy to cut down on complaints about the National Health Service–convince patients that nothing can be done. Then…
Newsletter
Voter Fraud, Health Care Reforms and Latin American Politics
Competing legal teams prepare to do battle over allegations of voter fraud. A new report contrasts the competing health care plans announced by the major…
Blog
The Swiss are Nuts … About Plants’ Rights, Anyway
I've visited Switzerland several times. I've always believe the Swiss to be rational, level-headed people. Far more sober than so many Europeans. They've managed to…
Blog
Latin America Should be on Washington’s Agenda
Yesterday, Nelson Cunningham, one of the panelists at a Hudson Institute conference on Latin America's “Radical Populism Challenge” commented that it is better that the…
Blog
The Wonders of Socialized Health Care, Number 8,977
Ameirca’s health care system is messed up. Agreed. It is a bizarre amalgam of public and private, with government spending and tax policy creating counterproductive…
Blog
Neither carrots nor sticks II
Further to my earlier post on Latin America, The Wall Street Journal‘s Mary O’Grady points to a good way for the U.S. to…
Blog
Neither carrots nor sticks
Few things are as exasperating as watching two sides argue — and neither rise above being half-right, at best. Still, the resulting exchange in this…
Blog
NHS Reform: A Few More Brits Might Survive
Great Britain’s Vaunted National Health Insurance won’t pay for necessary drugs to its patients, but it has refused to allow them to contribute their own…
Blog
Socialized Health Care Feels Like it is … Socialized!
Want to nationalize American health care? Just compare what it’s like to be treated in America and in Britain. Writes F. Brinley Bruton: A…
Blog
Eurocrats Push European Consolidation
Nothing horrifies the New Class of bureaucrats, intellectuals, politicians, and activists than an aroused public dedicated to defeating their plans. The Irish vote against the…
Blog
Blame Canada (arts funding)
In any list of programs that could be easily cut without much disruption -- except to a small rent-seeking elite -- is arts funding. It…
Blog
South Park’s “signs of extremist activity”
Few people have validated Saul Alinksy’s “Rule” that “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon” better than South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt…
Blog
Europe: The PC Paradise
People have a lot to say about advertising, much of it bad. Many ads are stupid, insulting, silly, nonsensical, counterproductive, etc., etc. Some are even…
Products
CEI Planet: September – October 2008
View the new Montly Planet by downloading the PDF of the issue. Below you’ll find previews of the articles in this issue:…
Blog
Loose Money Follies
The Federal Reserve has been keeping interest rates low and inflating the currency, to bail out irresponsible people who’ve borrowed more than they can afford, and encourage…
Blog
War in Georgia Goes Cyber
A follow-up to Hans Bader’s informative post on the Russia-Georgia war: Ars reports that the war is going on in cyberspace as well.
Op-Eds
The U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement Deserves a Vote
Free trade is in trouble, as protectionist politicians in the U.S. and elsewhere demagogue against it. Especially egregious is the U.S. Congress’s decision to delay—indefinitely—voting…
Blog
Is Green Fanaticism on its Way Out?
Maybe so. At least, that’s what Alice Thomson argues in the Times of London: Julie Burchill can’t stand them. According to her new book,…
Newsletter
Whole Foods Merger, Ethanol’s Impact and Health Savings Accounts
A federal court calls into question the recent merger of Whole Foods and Wild Oats natural food stores. South Asian leaders meet to discuss food…
Newsletter
Ethanol’s Sins, Menthol Cigarettes and Property Rights
USA Today details the troubling side effects of using corn-based ethanol as an auto fuel. Legislation to give the Food and Drug Administration authority over…
Op-Eds
Bailing Out Kelo
Of all the unintended consequences of the housing bill that passed the House on Wednesday, the most ironic and far-reaching may be this:…
Newsletter
Online Gambling, Fannie Mae Bailout and WTO
Congressman Barney Frank sponsors legislation to legalize online gambling. President Bush endorses the taxpayer bailout of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. India raises…
Blog
Smoking: A Religious Rite?
It’s a sign of the times. To get around indoor smoking bans, Dutch smokers are joining “The Only and Universal Smokers Church of God,”…
Newsletter
Expensive Regulations, Fannie Mae Bailout and Baseball Stadiums
Americans for Tax Reform marks the annual “Cost of Government Day.” Plans to spend billions of taxpayer dollars to rescue mortgage companies Fannie Mae and…
Citation
The $50 Billion Bipartisan AIDS Boondoggle
Newsletter
Banking Crisis, Globalization and Internet Poker
Federal officials charge that a letter from Sen. Chuck Schumer sparked the run on deposits that triggered the second-largest bank collapse in U.S. history this…
Blog
Free Trade Brings Hope and Prosperity, Transforms Lives
There’s a story in the Washington Post today about how freer trade lifted millions of people out of poverty in Colombia, especially in the…
Citation
the Benefits of the Columbian Free Trade Agreement
News Release
Free Trade with Colombia Deserves a Vote
Congress should stop stalling and move quickly to approve the pending free trade agreement between the United States and Colombia, according to a…
Study
The United States-Colombia Free Trade Agreement Deserves a Vote
Sound trade and foreign policy is being held hostage to politics.
Newsletter
Global Warming, Farm Protests and Homelessness
The Senate debates global warming legislation sponsored by Senators Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and John Warner (R-VA). The Argentinian government faces widespread protests from farmers. The…
Op-Eds
Science benefits from attracting more skilled foreign workers
Sir, Bob Greifeld (“America cannot afford to drive away talent”, May 30) articulates many economic reasons for increasing the number of annually issued H-1B…
Newsletter
Vaclav Klaus, Fingerprint Registration and Free Trade
The Competitive Enterprise Institute publishes a new book by Czech president Václav Klaus on the future of environmental policy. The Senate Banking Committee approves a…
News Release
Farm Bill Deserves a Veto
The Competitive Enterprise Institute applauds Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer’s announcement yesterday that President Bush will veto the Farm Bill that the House-Senate conference…
