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
News Release
Escalating trade war with China won’t fix the need for reform: CEI analysis
On Monday, China vowed to retaliate against nations that corporate with President Trump’s tariffs against Beijing, putting potential trade deals between the US and other…
Blog
Trump’s tariffs: Look for the union label
One of the biggest boosters of President Trump’s tariffs has been the United Auto Workers (UAW). The venerable union wants to see domestic factories expanded…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Economic ideas for American workers with Ryan Young
In this week’s episode we cover teaching with AI, clearing the way for new nuclear development, and eliminating soda and candy…
Search Posts
Blog
Financial Transactions Tax Not the Answer for Africa
French President Emmanuel Macron is advocating for a Europe-wide tax on financial transactions to fund more foreign aid for Africa.
Blog
Celebrate National Coffee Day
In the modern American workplace, many people see coffee as essential to productivity and for socializing around the coffee machine, which makes it unsurprising that…
Blog
Might Australian Financial Regulators Finally Embrace Greater Competition?
Over the past few weeks, I have been rather critical of the state of financial regulation in Australia. A banking scandal earlier this month revealed…
Blog
Human Freedom Is Key to African Prosperity
Earlier this week at a presentation to the Cato Institute, authors Greg Mills, Jeffrey Herbst, Olusegun Obasanjo, and Dickie Davis, discussed their new book…
Blog
Why Africa Needs Economic Freedom
That is the topic I presented earlier this week as part of the panel discussion, Perspectives on African Development, at the Department of State’s…
Blog
Why Economic Freedom Is the Best Weapon against Poverty
This blog post is adapted from a speech delivered to the Foreign Service Institute at the United States Department of State on August 29, 2017.
Washington Times
Federal Government Needs Major Overhaul to Cut Red Tape, Reduce Costs: Report
The Washington Times covers CEI’s latest publication Shrinking Government Bureaucracy. Shrinking the federal bureaucracy would spur economic growth and reduce costs to taxpayers,…
Washington Free Beacon
Report: Reducing Regulatory Agencies’ Authority Could Boost Economy, Increase Job Creation
The Washington Free Beacon covers CEI’s latest publication Shrinking Government Bureaucracy. Reducing some of government’s regulatory agencies’ authority could boost economic growth and…
Blog
Congress Should Confirm Export-Import Bank Nominee, End Corporate Welfare
The Export-Import Bank is one of the capital’s greatest boondoggles, handing out loans for large corporations at the taxpayer’s expense.
Bloomberg BNA
Trump Team Unlikely to Fight for NAFTA Worker Safety Rewrite
Bloomberg BNA discusses NAFTA with Marc Scribner Worker safety and labor advocates don’t see eye to eye with President Donald Trump on very…
Blog
Conservatives International Brings Pro-Liberty Activists Together
Our friends at Conservatives International published a great short video this week featuring CEI’s own Iain Murray.
Forbes
International Freedom Fighters Organize in Miami
Fans of free markets and limited government have a new place to seek allies. Recently Conservatives International, a new global advocacy organization, was launched…
The Conservative
Trade’s Real Enemy Is Regulation
Free trade has brought countless benefits over the past two centuries. It allows for specialisation among nations that has brought down the cost of living…
Blog
The Key to Prosperity in the Southern Hemisphere and around the World
We have the potential to put developing economies on a path to avoid the mistakes made in America and among our European friends.
Blog
Exiting Paris Should Weaken Carbon Tariff Threat
Will other nations attempt to punish President Trump for pulling out of the Paris Agreement by imposing “border taxes”—aka carbon tariffs—on U.S. exports?…
Blog
Let Private Markets Finance Aircraft Sales
There is no good reason to keep the Export-Import Bank —or its international brethren—around.
Blog
President Trump Should Ignore Advice of Obama Administration Officials on Paris Agreement
Trump’s greatest contribution to American democracy and international energy policy would be to repudiate the politics of plunder, starting with its most grandiose embodiment—the Paris…
Washington Examiner
Conservative Groups Urge Lighthizer to Leave NAFTA Alone
Washington Examiner covers a coalition letter signed by CEI urging U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to stay in NAFTA. A coalition of conservative and…
Blog
Paris Agreement: Carbon Tax Elders Offer More Bad Advice
The same GOP elders who have been pushing what American Enterprise Institute economist Ben Zycher charitably calls “The Deeply Flawed Case for a Carbon Tax”…
Blog
The Paris Agreement and the Imperial Presidency: My Response to David Bookbinder
The Paris Agreement thus casts a long dark shadow not only on U.S. energy producers but our future as a self-governing polity.
Blog
Misdirected Paris Agreement Debate Fixates on Meaning of ‘May’
This being Washington, D.C., the world capital of misdirection, debate on whether President Trump should keep his campaign promise to “cancel” America’s participation in the…
Blog
Paris Agreement: Why Trump Should Ignore Obama Officials’ Legal Counsel
President Trump is expected to decide soon whether he will keep his campaign promise to “cancel” America’s participation in the Paris Agreement.
Study
Polluted Logic Taints WHO Reports on Children’s Health
View Full Document as PDF The world has been getting wealthier in recent decades. That economic growth has enabled millions of people…
Blog
European Populism Is Nationalist Conservatism
As European conservative governments deploy authority and ignore economic forces, it is likely that the problems facing their nations will intensify rather than decrease.
The Spectator Australia
“Buy Ethical” Will Only Harm the World’s Poorest
For the past four years, Baptist World Aid Australia have been releasing their annual Behind the Barcode report into the working conditions of…
Forbes
Reform Bill Trades Foreign Aid For Corporate Welfare
A new foreign aid bill soon to be introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives looks to substitute U.S. development assistance in favor of private…
Blog
The Future of Liberty and Democracy in Europe
The classical liberal tradition calls for respecting the liberty of individuals and of conscience, the freedom to trade goods and services, and even the mobility…
Investor's Business Daily
World Bank And IMF Get African Development Wrong, Again
It’s springtime in Washington D.C., which, for the uninitiated, means not only cherry blossoms and Nationals’ baseball, but the spectacle of the World Bank’s and…
CapX
Only Economic Freedom Will Keep Africa Growing
Ever since African nations began to gain independence in the 1960s, Western countries have looked to assist their economic development. While the nature of this…
The Huffington Post
Africa’s Economy Needs to Come out of the Shadows
Westerners used to call sub-Saharan Africa “the Dark Continent.” That epithet reflected a willful ignorance of the continent’s civilizations, cultures, and history, and helped justify…
Blog
African Development Requires Economic and Legal Reforms, Affordable Energy
If the African continent is to achieve the prosperity it deserves, then African policy makers and non-governmental organizations alike should strive to implement pro-growth policies.
Blog
White House Should Drop Support for Cronyism of Export-Import Bank
With the Trump administration’s early emphasis on deregulation, there was hope that cronyist agencies such as the Export-Import Bank, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and Economic…
News Release
Trump Trade Nominee a Poor Choice to Lead U.S. Negotiations
The United States Senate Committee on Finance is expected to soon vote on the confirmation of Robert Lighthizer to be United States Trade Representative. CEI Senior…
National Review
‘The Greatest Deregulatory Endeavor’
National Review highlights Iain Murray’s study on the United Kingdom’s split from the European Union. Iain Murray, co-author of “Cutting the Gordian Knot”…
Blog
Lessons from a Humble Pencil about Economics and the World
On National Pencil Day, we salute this marvel of capitalism and Leonard Read’s classic story about an everyday object.
Blog
United Kingdom Invokes Article 50 to Leave the European Union
In a historic moment, British Prime Minister Theresa May today invoked Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, which formally starts the process…
Blog
Time to Repeal the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act
FATCA amounts to a fine levied by the U.S. on any of its citizens who have the temerity to live abroad.
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter to Repeal Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act
View Full Document as PDF As free-market and taxpayer protection organizations representing millions of Americans, we urge that repeal of the Foreign…
Blog
Federal Budget Must Demand Value for Taxpayer Dollars
Competitive Enterprise Institute Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray responded to President Trump’s budget proposal today.
Blog
Let Africa Power Its Future with Affordable Energy
Economic development in Africa needs affordable, reliable fossil fuels, not expensive, intermittent renewables, as some Western environmentalists demand.
Blog
Trump Should Keep Promise, Withdraw U.S. from Paris Climate Treaty
President Trump should keep his campaign promise and rescind or otherwise withdraw the United States from President Obama’s purported commitment to the Paris climate pact…
Washington Post
Last night, conservatives gave up on conservatism
The Washington Post discusses President Trump’s policy proposals from his address to a joint session of Congress with CEI President Kent Lassman. The…
Blog
Gates Foundation Should Credit Market Reforms for Poverty Reduction
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation should give greater credit to the proven economic reforms that have spurred development throughout the world.
Blog
Failure to Renounce Paris Climate Deal Would Create Major White House Policy Conflict
On the campaign trail, presidential candidate Donald Trump said he would “cancel” U.S. participation in the Paris Agreement. He now appears to be back-pedaling.
Blog
Economic Freedom in the U.S. Fell Last Year Due to Rising Regulatory and Tax Burdens
The United States recently slipped to its lowest level yet in world rankings of economic freedom compiled by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall…
Blog
Trump May Suspend Obama-era Rules on Conflict Minerals
The Dodd-Frank Act’s conflict-minerals rules backfired, and caused malnutrition, misery, and violence in the eastern Congo.
Blog
Response to Mercatus Center’s Dan Griswold on Trade Policy
Fred Smith and Marc Scribner respond to the Mercatus Center's Dan Griswold on the free market approach to trade policy.
Blog
Deregulate to Speed Recovery from ‘Creative Destruction’ of Trade and Innovation
Government regulation limits the ability of individuals and businesses to recover from normal economic setbacks.
Blog
Financial Regulation Executive Order a Step in the Right Direction
A new White House executive order aims to redesign how financial institutions are regulated by the federal government.
Independent Journal Review
I’ve Had A Green Card Since 1999 – Trump’s Executive Order Shows The Overreach Of Presidential Power
Green card holders like me received an unwelcome present from the Trump administration this weekend. In the course of the fiasco surrounding the president’s executive…
