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
Report urges upgrades + renewal for US-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement
A new Competitive Enterprise Institute report urges US trade negotiators to improve and extend the beleaguered free trade agreement with Mexico…
Study
Toward a Renewed and Improved USMCA
Cross-border trade in North America has been an engine of prosperity for the United States, Mexico, and Canada. But the agreement governing…
Blog
New CEI paper: Renewing and improving the USMCA
Trade agreements are not as dramatic as trade wars, but they are essential to sound trade policy. President Trump’s tariffs have harmed the domestic…
Search Posts
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…
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