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
AGOA renewal should hold South Africa accountable
Free traders scored a victory in Congress this week when the House Ways and Means Committee passed the AGOA Extension Act. The legislation, sponsored…
The Washington Examiner
Coconut, citrus, and tea: Here’s what got tariff relief quietly over the weekend
The Washington Examiner cited CEI’s expert on tariffs Ryan Young, a senior economist at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said the list of tariff rollbacks is…
The National News Desk
Rollbacks on tariffs for food could bring shoppers some relief on prices
The National News Desk cited CEI’S expert on tariffs raising prices “The positive experience that consumers will see with price reductions on their food…
Search Posts
Blog
New Version of Obama Health-Care Plan Relies on Imaginary Savings, Costs More Than $2 Trillion, and Will Explode Federal and State Budget Deficits
Health-care “reform” always costs more than predicted, as ObamaCare provisions have at the state level. So the claim that the new, cheaper version…
Blog
Silencing Criticism through Libel Law
The physicist turned science journalist Simon Singh has been sued in a UK court and, this past summer, found liable for libel for an April…
Blog
Senators Lindsey Graham and John Kerry: Yes We Can (Raise Your Energy Prices and Send Jobs Abroad)
Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) published a curious op-ed in Sunday’s New York Times titled, “Yes We Can (Pass Climate Legislation).” …
Blog
Nobel Prize “Gift” Double Standard
Drug companies are apparently forbidden from offering freebies to doctors in certain liberal states like Massachusetts and Vermont, under the theory that doctors’ loyalty…
Blog
Best article on Obama’s Nobel — Wash Post’s Cohen
Here’s Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen’s take this morning on the Nobel Prize announcement. It’s too good to excerpt: In a stunning announcement,…
Blog
President Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
President Obama is in a prime position to work wonders for the cause of peace. He can institute free trade in America. Trade is the…
Blog
Precisely Backwards
Few things are more taxing than our elected officials’ economic illiteracy. How sad that visiting a wonderful country like ours may soon be one of…
Blog
Supreme Court Confronts Free Speech, Animal Cruelty, Gun Rights, Violent Crime, and National Sovereignty Issues
The Supreme Court is back in session. Today, it is hearing a challenge to a federal law banning depictions of cruelty to animals…
Blog
Corporate Human Rights?
Over at the Detroit News, Hans Bader and I explain why corporations have human rights despite not being human. The reason why? Transaction costs.
Blog
World’s largest country reports first swine flu death
Six months into the swine flu outbreak China, with a population of over 1.3 billion or a fifth of the word’s population, has just…
Blog
Unemployment Rises to 26-Year High of 9.8%; Obama’s Policies Worsen Unemployment and Credit Crunch
Unemployment has risen to 9.8 percent, a 26-year high. That’s much higher than the Obama administration predicted unemployment would rise, if Congress had refused…
Blog
Stimulus Packages Don’t Work; Obama’s $800 Billion Stimulus Will Shrink the Economy
“Stimulus” packages that increase government spending don’t work, notes Harvard economist Robert J. Barro in the Wall Street Journal. The administration claimed that Obama’s…
Blog
Overpaid Bureaucrats Expand in Number and Pay
Thanks to the $800 billion stimulus package, and other huge government spending increases, the number of federal and state employees is projected to increase massively.
Blog
The Magic of Numbers
Is it really easier to work in groups or is it just a way to shift responsibility? This question is relevant after the recent summit…
Op-Eds
As Deficit Rises, So Too Does Number of Federal Employees
Thanks to the $800 billion stimulus package, and other huge government spending increases, the number of federal and state employees is projected to increase…
Blog
7-Eleven serves up Big Gulp of Big Government to credit card consumers
Tomorrow, 7-Eleven Inc. and other big retail chains will hit Capitol Hill to offer Congress members and their staffs a supersize serving of hypocrisy. Retailers,…
Blog
It’s Complicated
Journalists have a tendency to present overly-simple explanations of current events that often turn out to be false. Part of it is due to the…
Blog
Obama Slaps Unconstitutional Gag Order on Critic of His Health Care Plan
While Obama ally ACORN attempts to gag whistleblowers who exposed its role in a recent scandal, the Obama administration is trying to gag…
Blog
Hard-Left Obama Policies Draw Criticism for Undermining Democracy, Security, and the Rule of Law
In his 2008 campaign, Barack Obama talked a lot about “bipartisanship,” but in office, he has governed from the far left, on both domestic and…
Blog
Funny, That
An article in today's New York Times laments the difficulty of "building momentum for an international climate treaty at a time when global temperatures have…
Blog
Obama Speech to the UN: The Data
Myron has already pointed out how most of what the President claimed were the threats from global warming are exaggerated. Here’s the data to…
Blog
Finding Something to Praise in Obama’s Speech Today
While this speech is mostly hogwash, I am surprised and delighted to be able to find one thing to praise in it: Later this…
Blog
Obama Speech to the UN
President Barack Obama’s speech on global warming to the United Nations today is based on fantasy. Here are some quotes from the speech followed by…
Blog
Chevron Plaintiff Lawyer’s Least Favorite Writer
In Forbes yesterday, New York lawyer Steven Donziger, consultant attorney for Ecuadorian plaintiffs in the suit against Chevron, criticizes my article,…
Blog
Democratic Governor Criticizes Deficit-Exploding Obama Health-Care Plan; Middle Class Faces Huge Health and Global-Warming Tax Hikes
Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen (D) is criticizing Obama’s health-care plan as “the mother of all unfunded mandates,” saying it will force states to spend…
Blog
Firing Blanks on FOIA Part II
In his update to his post, Declan McCullagh notes an objection by the Center for American Progress: The fourth objection is the most compelling.
Blog
Obama Wants to Extend PATRIOT Act
One may be a Republican and the other a Democrat, but make no mistake. Bush and Obama are two peas in a pod.
Blog
Another Hoover on trade?
President Obama’s slapping of tariffs on tires imported from China is the latest in a series of protectionist moves by the U.S. that threaten the…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 50: Tires from China
The burden is on tariff supporters to explain why they think people who live in one country are more deserving of economic opportunity than people…
Blog
Scientist Who Saved a Billion Lives Dies; Congress Blocks Reform of Law Based on Junk Science
Norman Borlaug, the scientist who saved a billion lives by fathering the Green Revolution, died Saturday at the age of 95. His work…
Blog
The Man Who Fed the World
Norman Borlaug was an American agricultural scientist and plant breeder whose work sparked what is now known as the Green Revolution. He was recognized with…
Blog
Do Corporations Have Human Rights?
Intel’s defense in its EU antitrust case has taken the surprising line that the company’s human rights were violated. Over at Real Clear Markets, CEI…
Blog
New Paper Shows Staggering Cost to Americans of Waxman-Markey
There’s a new cost:benefit study from New York University Law School’s Institute for Public Integrity that, its authors claim, shows that, “From almost…
Op-Eds
Stimulus Package Forces States to Raise Taxes
The federal government’s $800 billion stimulus package, which failed to cut unemployment, is now forcing states and local governments to raise taxes. The Wall…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 47: Irish Potatoes
It is bad policy to keep perfectly good food off the market because of its shape, especially during times of recession and high food prices.
Blog
‘The Times’ it is a changing
On Saturday, The Times of London published a news article under the headline "Organic food is a waste of money". The hard-0copy print edition of…
Blog
Racist, Communist, America-Bashing Obama Adviser Resigns, Over Wacky 9/11 Conspiracy Theory
Obama’s racist, communist, America-bashing Green Jobs Czar, Van Jones, has resigned after revelations that he was a 9/11 “Truther,” who believed that George Bush…
Blog
UN Declares Dictator Fidel Castro a “World Hero”
The UN has declared Fidel Castro, the longtime Communist dictator of Cuba, the “World Hero of Solidarity.” Castro killed thousands and thousands…
Blog
CEI Weekly: CEI’s 9/12 Intellectual Ammunition Workshop
CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features CEI's workshop for the 9/12 March on D.C., and a…
Blog
India’s CO2 emissions to triple by 2030
India and China talk the Al Gore talk of climate Armageddon and the necessity for urgent action — yet their emissions keep going up and…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 46: Chemical Weapons
If your company exports chemical weapons, make sure you keep good records. Every year, on company letterhead, you have to list ten things for the…
Blog
Obama Imposes Sanctions on Impoverished Nation of Honduras, Despite Loss of Legal Basis for Doing So
The Obama Administration formally cut off aid to the impoverished nation of Honduras today, and announced other impending sanctions, to pressure the country to…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 45: Wooden Crates
Even the humble wooden crate cannot escape the government’ watchful regulatory eye.
Blog
Obama’s Sanctions Cause Suffering, Malnutrition, and Unemployment in Honduras
Earlier, I wrote about how the Obama Administration has imposed sanctions on the people of Honduras, such as blocking travel to the U.S.
Blog
The EU’s Silly Ban of the 100-Watt Bulb
Starting this week, it will be illegal to make or import 100-watt light bulbs in the European Union. And for what? New Scientist reporter…
Blog
Will Support for Cap-and-Trade Energy Tax Melt Away? It’s Costly and Won’t Help the Environment
In the name of cutting greenhouse gases, the House passed a cap-and-trade carbon tax scheme backed by the Obama Administration in June. But the bill…
Blog
Video Evidence Suggests Chevron Lawsuit Riddled With Corruption, Santacruz Comments on the Case
A major scandal has arisen in the biggest environmental lawsuit in history - the $27 billion lawsuit against Chevron oil company brought by a lawyer…
Blog
Obama to Cut Off Aid to Honduras, Based on Legal Mistake and Misreading of the Law
The Obama Administration is about to cut off aid to Honduras, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. Earlier, the Obama Administration…
Op-Eds
Obama Keeps Lying About Health Care, Even After Being Caught
You just can’t trust President Obama’s claims about his health-care plan. He keeps on lying even after he is caught lying and his lies…
Blog
Obama Punishes Small Country for Court Ruling Refusing to Reinstate Bullying Ex-President and Would-Be Dictator
The Obama Administration has decided to block travel by the people of Honduras to the United States to punish their country for its Supreme…
