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
News Release
Risk And Environmental Information: Federal Data Mandates, Mandates to Misinform
Information is a valuable tool, but sometimes misinformation is more powerful. As we approach Earth Day 1999, CEI observes the state of environmental information…
News Release
Media Advisory: Earth Day Experts
Most Americans want a clean environment. That is no surprise. What surprises traditional environmental activists is that most people don’t support extensive federal regulation.
Study
The First Family’s Asthma Problems
View Full Document as PDF Both Bill and Hillary Clinton are taking actions that will affect the nation’s six million asthmatic…
Op-Eds
DOJ Gets No Credit For Visa Complaint: Case Will Stifle Bank Card Innovation
The specter of the U.S. Department of Justice as "social engineer" — seeking to shape markets into a narrow and static mold of…
Study
Save Methyl Bromide
A battle is raging in Washington between farmers and environmental regulators. At issue is the chemical methyl bromide, and the outcome could affect…
Products
The EPA’S Latest Injustice
Convent is a small, relatively poor town in St. James Parish, Louisiana, that lies along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
Study
Why the UN Desertification Treaty is All Wet
After his recent visit to Africa’s Kalahari Desert, President Bill Clinton proclaimed himself “a greener person” and called for Senate ratification of the United…
Study
EPA’s Asthma Miasma
Is the Environmental Protection Agency a friend or enemy of asthmatic children? It all depends on which issue the agency is peddling.
Products
Bail Out For The Foolish
My Daddy always said never get between a fool and his mistake – it would sacrifice the only good that might come from the…
News Release
Mammoth Victory For Elephant Conservation At CITES
HARARE, ZIMBABWE, Thursday, June 19, 1997 — The ivory ban has ended for three southern African nations, despite intense opposition from the U.S. government.
Products
Precautionary Petard
The Precautionary Principle – the proposition that new technologies or products should not be permitted until we know they won't endanger health, safety, or…
Products
Chemical Weapons Convention Sell-out
Not since "read-my-lips" George Bush raised taxes and destroyed his presidency has a Republican leader so soiled the GOP's claim to be a party of…
News Release
Earth Day Tragedy: Flawed Environmental Treaty Dumps on Third World
WASHINGTON, DC April 22, 1997 —The Basel Convention, a United Nations treaty which regulates world trade, is due to ban all trade in “wastes”…
News Release
Red Tape Will Hinder Trade: Study Questions Environmental and Economic Benefits of ISO14000
WASHINGTON, DC March 22, 1997—Imposing mandatory uniform environmental standards on industrial firms will result in both environmental and economic harm according to a study…
Products
Tyranno-Soros
It always makes me queasy when a successful capitalist uses his wealth and talent to sell anti-capitalism. Not because such behavior is a form of…
News Release
Third World Rebuffs Clinton Green Team
The Clinton administration suffered a major setback in its efforts to incorporate environmental restrictions into world trade rules with the completion of talks in the…
Study
Trashing Free Trade: The Basel Convention’s Impact
Executive Summary With the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995, free trade should be on the rise. The WTO has been heralded…
Op-Eds
Trashing Free Trade: The Basel Convention’s Impact on International Commerce
Trashing Free Trade: The Basel Convention’s Impact on International Commerce by James M. Sheehan With the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995,…
Products
Free Trade for All
Massachusetts Governor William Weld, running in a tight Senate race against Senator John Kerry, recently came out in favor of a protectionist trade ban against…
Products
Message From the President: Unsustainable Policies
In March the President’s Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD), made up of governmental, environmental and business leaders, presented to President Clinton its final report, Sustainable…
Products
The Mismeasure of Man
The environmentalist assault on chlorine has taken a recent turn. Organochlorines, we are now told, not only cause cancer, they are capable of altering human…
Products
Rachel Was Wrong
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring ushered in an era of national concern over the potential effects of synthetic chemicals. Published in 1962, Carson's book suggested that…
Study
Two Years After NAFTA: A Free Market Critique and Assessment
Full Document Available in PDF The debate over the…
Op-Eds
Restricting Trade Will Not Help The Environment
Full Article Available in PDF Format Executive Summary Expanding free trade to include all nations could have beneficial effects…
Study
The Basel Convention
The Basel Convention by Ray Evans …
Op-Eds
Making the Polluters Pay
Environmentalists often call for a world with zero pollution. The response from industry and professional economists is disbelief. Who is right? That depends…
Study
The True State Of The Planet
The True State of the Planet: Ten of the World’s Premier Environmental Researchers in a Major Challenge to the Environmental Movement Date: 1995 Edited…
Study
The Greening Of Trade Policy: “Sustainable Development” and Global Trade
Executive Summary Introduction The Environmental Critique of Trade Free Trade and Environmental Quality Free Markets Are Truly Green Focus on Global Environment Fosters Ecological…
Op-Eds
Trading Away Free Trade
Full article is available in PDF (Liberty magazine, November 1994, pp. 22-26). The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade has lowered the world’s…
Op-Eds
The Market and Nature
(Originally appeared in The Freeman, September 1993) Many environmentalists are dissatisfied with the environmental record of free economies. Capitalism, it is claimed, is…
Op-Eds
Environmental Policy at the Crossroads
Full Chapter Available in PDF Format Executive Summary It has always been with us, and…
Op-Eds
How the IMF Could Become a Real S&P for International Debt
Should the U.S, donate an added $8.4 billion- to the International Monetary Fund? IMF opponents, of course, answer “No,” They claim that increased- IMF funding…
