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
Companies to China: Don’t profit-block us bro
An article in this morning’s wall street journal commends a coalition of business associations and councils that sent a letter to China’s Premier…
Blog
WTO-UNEP report gives the nod — sort of — to carbon border taxes
Today, the World Trade Organization, together with the UN Environment Programme posted a report on trade and climate change that outlines…
Blog
“Take My Voice with You”
Thus tells an Iranian woman to a journalist passing through her town, in the new film, The Stoning of Soraya M., which opens…
Newsletter
EPA Censorship Exposed, the Trade War with China and Tracking Stimulus Spending
CEI releases the full global warming report that was suppressed by the Environmental Protection Agency. Climate change legislation in the House could lead to a…
Blog
“Leveling the playing field” with border taxes (read “bring down the economy”)
In Washington, beware any proposal that attempts to “level the playing field.” What is usually meant is hobbling competition with restrictive rules and regulations…
Blog
Obama Administration’s Anti-Travel Policies Hit New Low
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the new passport requirements implemented at the U.S.-Canada border. As I noted at the time, most Americans–including…
Op-Eds
Ecuador’s Counterproductive Fight Against Illegal Immigration
Ecuador’s government has devised a new way to discourage illegal immigrants, mainly from Cuba and China, from entering into fake marriages with natives in…
Blog
Stimulus = Welfare + Quotas + Corruption
Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package is now being used to force states to adopt racial quotas in government contracts, even if their state constitution…
Blog
Obama Administration Gives Miranda Warnings to Enemy Combatants in Afghanistan, Even Though They Are Not Legally Required
The Obama Administration is now requiring investigators to give Miranda warnings to some “captured foreign fighters” in Afghanistan, advising them that they…
Blog
The Stoning of Soraya M.
The Stoning of Soraya M. is a difficult film to watch, but worth taking the time to do so. The film . . . depicts…
Op-Eds
Obama Stimulus Package Is Destroying Jobs
The Examiner was right to protest President Barack Obama’s firing of inspector general Gerald Walpin after he exposed wrongdoing by prominent Obama supporter Kevin…
Blog
HHS Secretary: Health Insurance Industry Needs Competition… With Government
In an AP interview on Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called for competition in the health insurance market. No, not between…
Blog
Tourism Bill to Be Combined With Anti-Civil-Liberties Hate Crimes Bill
If you were a tourist, would you like to come to a country where you could be tried twice for the same crime — even…
Blog
Public Wants Wasteful Stimulus Package Canceled
By a margin of 45% to 36%, the American people want to cancel the $787 billion stimulus package, reports pollster Rasmussen Reports. Economist…
Blog
Stimulus Package Kills Jobs, Drives Up Unemployment
Unemployment is now even higher than the Obama Administration said it would be if there were no stimulus package. At least 1.5 million…
Blog
Twenty Years since Tiananmen Square
China is a very different place than it was twenty years ago. It was on this day in 1989 that one anonymous, brave soul halted…
Blog
NYT: “Buy American” angers allies, loses jobs
The New York Times opined today that the so-called stimulus bill’s “Buy American” provisions are having some unintended consequences –…
Blog
Stupid Border Tricks
Beginning today, American and Canadian citizens will now be required to carry new forms of government identification in order to cross the shared border. Former…
Blog
Obama Panders to the UAW: $30 Billion More for Wasteful Auto Bailout
The federal government is giving another $30 billion in taxpayer money to General Motors to allow it to operate without having to cut…
Blog
Stimulus Package Shrinks Economy, Destroys Private Sector Jobs
Most of the $800 billion stimulus package has yet to be spent, but it’s already harming the economy, both by triggering trade wars that have…
Blog
Anti-GMO Zealots vs. Starving Zimbabweans
In Zimbabwe, the most food aid-dependent country in the world, officials and self-styled “consumer activists” have begun raiding shops suspected of selling genetically-modified food,…
Blog
Retirees, Taxpayers Ripped Off to Subsidize UAW
Obama accused critics of his decision to give control of Chrysler to the United Auto Workers Union of being “speculators.” But it turns out…
Blog
Calling All Liberty-Loving Writers
Our good friend and CEI alumna Kendra Okonski is looking for writers and journalists to enter the distinguished and lucrative Bastiat Prize Competition, presented…
Blog
Victory for Capitalism in World’s Largest Democracy
India’s Congress Party was responsible for many mistakes when it turned India into a corrupt socialist state in the 1960s and 70s, but it changed…
Blog
Stimulus Ignites Job-Killing Trade War With Canada
The $800 billion stimulus package pushed through by Obama has ignited a trade war with Canada, reports the Washington Post. In response to vague…
Blog
Klaus vs. the Eurocrats
In The American Spectator, former CEI Bastiat Scholar Doug Bandow (now at the Cato Institute) describes how “[o]nly the Irish people and Czech President…
Blog
Taxing Away American Jobs
Obama’s plan to raise taxes on the foreign operations of U.S. businesses may destroy management and professional jobs in the U.S., will put American business…
Blog
The Road to Serfdom
On Hayek’s brithday, the following brief speech from internet megastar Daniel Hannan MEP should remind us that there are all too many paths leading to…
Blog
Destabilizing Afghanistan: the Quagmire Expands
The anti-American Taliban extremists are resurgent not only in Afghanistan, where they once sheltered Osama Bin Laden, but also in neighboring Pakistan (which has nuclear…
Blog
David, Goliath and Chevron
How is little Ecuador going to collect from big Chevron? In 2007, investigative reporter Greg Palast posed the question to Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa regarding…
Blog
The Economics of Pirate Deterrence
How can we stop pirate attacks? By applying the law of demand. If something becomes more costly, people consume less of it. How to do…
Blog
North Korea Adopts Floral Basket-Based Economy
Isolated from the rest of the world, Kim Jong Il’s bankrupt North Korean regime appears to have stumbled upon a new gimmick to stay afloat:…
Blog
Torture Prosecutions for Thee, But Not for Me
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants Bush Administration officials prosecuted for facilitating torture. Fair enough. But if they get prosecuted, she should get prosecuted,…
Blog
Diamond in the rough?
Hmm. A Papua New Guinea tribesman is suing the The New Yorker magazine over an article penned by MacArthur “Genius” and Pulitzer…
Blog
¿Can We Be Amigos?
The Fifth Summit of the Americas held in Trinidad and Tobago on April 17th shed light on America’s new role in the Western Hemisphere. The…
Op-Eds
The war on mining: Fighting back
Gold has become a safe haven as jittery investors move away from weakened stock markets, and currencies are threatened by inflation. But the allure of…
Blog
Americas Summit: Two Views
Abajo! (“Down!”) was the response given by the friendly, bronzed-skinned middle-aged Cuban man who chatted with my husband and me over Cuban coffee on Calle…
Blog
Between the Headlines:”Sustainability” Means Sustainably Poor
“Mars Sets Goal for Sustainable Cocoa Sources” Another Washington Post story suggests that “sustainability” –whatever it may mean — still can…
Blog
Between the Headlines: “Russian Voting Tinged with Green”
“Russian Voting Tinged with Green” This Washington Post headline from earlier this month illustrates one of worrisome side-effects of authoritarian rule. …
Newsletter
Hemispheric Diplomacy, Greenhouse Gases and Anti-Tax Protests
President Obama attends the Summit of the Americas with other leaders from North and South America. The Environmental Protection Agency declares greenhouse gases to be…
Op-Eds
Treaty Supported by State Nominee Coddles Pirates
Quin Hillyer is right to criticize Obama’s nomination of Harold Koh to be chief counsel for the State Department. Koh’s appointment would make…
Blog
Whither Hemispheric Trade?
In his post-Summit of the Americas remarks in Trinidad and Tobago today, President Obama stated his administration’s commitment to improving relations with countries around the…
Blog
Tech is Key in Ideas Battle
Earlier today, Competitive Enterprise Institute President Fred Smith delivered an informative but lively, entertaining speech about the role of NGOs. The speech was delivered at…
Blog
The Liberal War on Science
Christina Hoff Sommers writes about a looming liberal war on science. Based on a campaign promise Obama made to feminist groups in October…
Blog
We Wouldn’t Have Teaparties If It Wasn’t For Rentseeking
Those who say we tried the free market and it failed should research the history of the Boston Tea Party a little. We didn’t even…
Blog
Federalism and Opposition to Illegal Immigration Are Signs of Subversion, Obama Administration Claims
The Obama Administration’s Department of Homeland Security has developed new profiles of potential terrorists. Its definition of “right-wing extremism” is so ridiculously broad that…
Blog
Sacrificing Safety and Freedom for “International Law”
Piracy has flourished in the crucial shipping lanes off the coast of Somalia partly due to a treaty that the U.S. has not…
Blog
Supreme Inconsistency on Foreign Law
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says that American courts should look more to foreign court rulings in interpreting our Constitution. But she herself does so…
Blog
Liability Gone Haywire Down Under
An 82-year-old Australian grandmother says she is prepared to go to jail rather than pay a A$1-million (US$731,000) bill to clean up toxic chemicals…
Blog
LOST to Pirates
The celebrations and congratulations over the U.S. Navy’s rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips are well deserved and proper all around. Yet even after the…
Blog
Liberal Bootlicking
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus recently visited Cuba and licked Casto’s boots, calling him an “inspiring” visionary and an “amazing human being.”…
Blog
One Down, Six to Go!
Oh the Worries of Our Modern Malthusians! In Washington this week, the Anarctica and Arctic Councils met for…
Newsletter
Green Tariffs, Foreign Aid and The End of Environmentalism
India warns the U.S. and EU not to enact “green” tariffs on products that create carbon dioxide emissions. President Obama’s foreign aid policy receives criticism…
Blog
India calls carbon tariffs protectionist
At the Bonn, Germany, UN meetings on global warming issues, India urged rich countries not to use “green” protectionism by imposing carbon tariffs on…
Blog
The Growing Chorus against Foreign Aid
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Mary Anastasia O’Grady takes on the Obama administration’s approach to foreign aid, which, she argues, amounts merely to maintaining…
Blog
That G20 Communique
Yesterday’s communiqué from the leaders of the G20 – a motley collection of democracies and dictatorships – has some good points, but in general…
Newsletter
G20 Stimulus, A Plan for Carbon Dioxide and Mark-to-Market Reforms
World leaders pledge to spend an additional $1 trillion to stimulate the global economy. Global warming activists call for policies to lower the concentration of…
Newsletter
Cancer Drugs, Voting Rights and Cap and Trade Controversy
Author Virginia Postrel details her successful battle against breast cancer. The Justice Department re-considers whether the proposed D.C. voting rights bill is constitutional. States with…
Blog
Obama Follows in Hoover’s Footsteps
During the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover damaged the economy, and impoverished the American people, with costly, artificial attempts to stimulate the economy through…
Blog
Energy bill — “first shot” in carbon trade war?
In the wake of the release of the Waxman-Markey energy bill, many commenters have pointed to the drastic restrictions on domestic energy use to…
Blog
“Robbery of the American People”
“Nobel Prize-winning liberal economist Joseph Stiglitz points out that the Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s plan to have the government subsidize investments in ‘toxic assets’ creates…
Blog
Capitalist-David rally versus Goliath-protests for Socialism
During the G20 summit something like 40,000 plus protesters slated to descend upon London. Of that number, there is a small but growing and…
Blog
Cap-and-trade and carbon tariffs — the economic downside
Today the lead editorial in the Wall Street Journal takes a hard look at some of the negative economic consequences of touted cap-and-trade programs…
Blog
Torture Caused Bogus Orange Alerts
Many of those bogus orange alerts that inconvenienced and alarmed travelers since 9/11 had an unsavory source: torture. The Bush Administration, with the tacit…
Blog
Policymakers’ letter asks tough questions re carbon tariffs
Yesterday Ranking Members of both two House committees and two subcommittees wrote to the new U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and asked him to…
Newsletter
A Reverse Tea Party, Geithner’s Insurance Plan and Trade War with Mexico
Environmental activists pour bottled water into Boston Harbor to protest “water privatization.” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner proposes a vast expansion of federal regulation of financial…
Op-Eds
Obama’s China Syndrome
It is looking less and less likely that President Obama will be able to institute his vaunted cap-and-trade scheme for greenhouse gas…
Blog
Can he terminate protectionism?
It seemed like California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t have guts, despite his super-macho screen image. Yesterday, however, he wrote to members of the California…
Blog
Losing talent in these perilous times
We’re beginning to see the talent exodus from TARP-funded financial institutions. Yesterday in an op-ed Jake DeSantis of AIG-Financial Products wrote his “resignation letter”…
Blog
Obama’s Policies Are “A Road to Hell,” European Leader Says
“The president of the European Union on Wednesday slammed U.S. plans to spend its way out of recession as ‘a road to hell.’…
Newsletter
Carbon Tariffs, Union Organizing and Geithner’s Toxic Plan
The House Ways and Means Committee holds a hearing on the impact of global warming on international trade. Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) announces that he…
Blog
Obama for global financial governance?
With the G-20 meeting looming in the midst of a worldwide recession, President Barack Obama sent an essay published today in about 30 newspapers…
News Release
Global Warming Laws Could Sabotage Free Trade
Today members of the House Ways and Means Committee gathered for a hearing on how future legislation on global warming could end up affecting…
Blog
Human Achievement Hour
This week CEI announced the creation of Human Achievement Hour (HAH) to be celebrated at 8:30pm on March 28th 2009 (the same time and…
Blog
Alarmists turn blind eye to global warming benefits–again
Tomorrow, the House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on the national security threats from melting Arctic ice. Greenwire (subscription required), the Online environmental news…
Citation
Herbert Obama: Obama’s protectionism and tax increases compared to Herbert Hoover’s
Blog
Will talent flee to the City?
A different take on possible effects of lawmakers’ rabble-rousing on TARP bonuses. Jeffrey Goldfarb at breakingviews.com says that driving out talented financial…
Blog
NYT soft-balls trade protectionism
A New York Times editorial today urges the Obama Administration to take a stronger role in supporting open trade, more specifically, to reinstate the…
Blog
A Global Green New Deal – What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Showing that he believes Al Gore’s typical misunderstanding that the Chinese word for crisis is made up of the characters for threat and opportunity (…
Blog
Show Your Work!
Fiona Harvey of the FT is one of the better journalists covering the environmental beat, but I’m afraid that is a bit like saying that…
Blog
Ron Kirk confirmed as USTR — vowed trade “enforcement”
The U.S. has a new U.S. Trade Representative — former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk. Kirk was confirmed by the Senate today in a 92-5…
Blog
Tit-for-tat: Tariffs and trucks
It’s no empty threat — Mexico will be slapping high tariffs on almost one hundred U.S. products beginning tomorrow, according to its economy minister. …
Blog
More on carbon tariffs
For more on the insanity of carbon tariffs, there’s an excellent 2008 article by the National Post’s Terence Corcoran appropriately titled “Blowing up the…
Blog
Carbon tariffs quid pro quo?
Just as the World Bank put out a report on increased trade protectionism in the world, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu…
Newsletter
Beach House Bailout, Voting Rights and Trade War with Mexico
Congress to likely consider a controversial plan for taxpayers to subsidize disaster insurance in risk-prone states. Attorney General Eric Holder keeps quiet about the recent…
Blog
Mexico wants to keep on trucking
Mexico said it would impose tariffs on about 90 U.S. exports in retaliation for a recent bill that violates the North America Free Trade…
Op-Eds
Silvia’s Ecuador Trip Diary: Entry Two
The conference began with remarks from Gustavo Pinto, president of the Geologists Association, who commented on the need to develop mining in mineral-rich Ecuador,…
Blog
Trade and special interests
A National Review Online editorial today takes President Obama to task for catering to Democratic special interests opposed to free trade. The…
Blog
Obama Insults America’s Allies, Endangers Economy
Not content with endangering the economy by pushing through $8 trillion in bailouts and welfare, Obama has now insulted the…
Blog
Remaining ‘Swiss’ No Longer An Option
In a running theme, I again cover the topic of the U.S. government’s heavy-handed dealings with swiss…
Blog
Obama Administration’s trade agenda released
According to President Obama’s 2009 Trade Policy Agenda, trade policy in his Administration will be used to promote “social accountability” and make…
Blog
Dambisa Moyo: Zambian Author Takes on Foreign Aid
The celebrity parade calling for more foreign aid to poor countries has become so ubiquitous — and accepted — these days that critiques of it…
Blog
More on Environmental Policies and Protectionism
Marlo made three interesting arguments yesterday contending that cap-and-trade would generate protectionist outcomes. I want to add another, pervasive, yet oft-neglected reason.
Blog
Is cap-and-trade inherently protectionist?
Yes, for three reasons. (1) Companies in carbon-constrained countries will demand carbon tariffs to “level the playing field” vis-a-vis firms in non-carbon constrained countries. (2)…
Blog
Gold is King Among Investors
Gold prices are skyrocketing—recently closing at over $1,000 an ounce, the highest in almost a year—while inflation fears continue rising and the dollar weakens. This…
Blog
More protectionism on the horizon?
Good article today by Bloomberg columnist Michael Sesit, who lays out the protectionist actions many countries are taking in the midst of…
Blog
UBS agrees to deal with the devil
I revoke my previous apology to the Swiss, and reiterate my previous disapproval. As evidenced by the…
Blog
Obama in Canada — where U.S. protectionism is an issue
President Obama is in Canada today to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on a range of issues – chief among…
Blog
Fraud in More Ways Than One
The news of the federal fraud charges against billionaire Texan financier Sir Allen Stanford (he got the knighthood from his dual citizenship from Antigua)…
Blog
Craft Brewers leeched by Oregon Regulators
Why legislators think it is a good idea to put their heels on the neck of the most productive industries is beyond me. Perhaps following…
