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
LOST Washing Up To Our Shores Once Again
The United National Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. Simultaneously, there has been a push for…
Blog
The Real Spanish Bank Bailout Cost: 113 Billion Euro
Don’t be fooled by the optimism overflowing from the stress test of Spain’s banking system released on Friday. American Consultancy Oliver Wyman, which performed the…
News Release
Report on Spanish Banks Underestimates Cost of Potential Bailout
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 1, 2012 — A report last week said Spain’s banks could require as much as 53.74 billion euro in bailout funds,…
Blog
Scapegoating Free Speech
In the aftermath of a terrorist attack in Libya that killed our ambassador and three other Americans, the Obama administration was quick to scapegoat a…
Blog
State Capitalism Or Corporatism? Italy’s Carmaker Conundrum
Italy’s iconic car manufacturer, Fiat, announced Saturday its plans to keep its production base in Italy after months of threatening to leave for more…
Blog
The European Central Bank’s Losing Game Of Chicken
European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi is losing a game of chicken with the Euro Area’s distressed peripheral countries. Earlier this month, Draghi announced…
Blog
Economic Freedom Of The World
Non-economists tend to be much more skeptical about economic freedom than economists are. This in itself is a powerful case for free markets. But empirical…
Blog
Striking: Right Or Privilege?
As the Chicago teachers’ strike is entering its second week, Mayor Emanuel has pledged to seek an injunction with the court to force instructors back…
Blog
Farms Need Workers, Not Subsidies
Reports of record farm profits has CNBC’s Senior Online Editor John Carney calling America’s agricultural labor shortage “phony,” and by implication, just an excuse…
Blog
Disturbing Calls For Censorship In America By Professors, Journalists, U.S. Diplomats, And Egyptian Government
In response to a film that mocked Mohammed, journalists on MSNBC, a professor, and the Egyptian government called for punishment of the film's producers.
Blog
Diverse GOP Voices Emphasize Immigrant Contributions
[caption id="attachment_59817" align="alignleft" width="266"] Former-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice[/caption] Even as the Republican National Committee adopted a platform advocating strict immigration enforcement, several influential party…
Blog
Higher Education Bubble Spawns Demographic Decline Among Educated Americans
The Washington Times takes note of the burgeoning higher education bubble in a recent editorial: The cost of a college education has…
Blog
Imagine There Are No Countries
“Imagine there’s no countries. It isn’t hard to do,” John Lennon once told us. Ignoring Lennon's grammatical error, that is exactly what University of Wisconsin-Madison…
Op-Eds
Trade Deficit Is Nothing to Worry About
Does it bother you that you run a trade deficit with your grocery store? You probably bought thousands of dollars’ worth of food from it…
Op-Eds
Angela Merkel’s Bismarckian Euro Diplomacy
German Chancellor Angela Merkel seems to be channeling her 19th century predecessor, Otto von Bismarck, in a striking way; engineering a diplomatic balancing act…
Blog
Miraculous Markets: Water Into Wine
Libertarians are often accused of “worshiping” the free market. But the truth is, markets can perform miracles. A car growing in Iowa? David Friedman (son…
Blog
CEI Podcast For July 19, 2012: Congress Takes On High-Skilled Immigration Reform
Congress will soon vote on a package of reforms for holders of the H-1B visa for high-skilled immigrants. Policy Analyst David Bier unpacks the proposed…
Blog
Europe’s Central Bankers Are Running Out Of Road
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said yesterday in his testimony to the House Financial Services Committee that Europe is a long way off from having a…
Blog
Obama Administration Urged Self-Reliant Hispanics To Go On Food Stamps
The government encouraged self-sufficient Hispanics to apply for food stamps, in a Spanish-language radio campaign that continued until English speakers finally became aware…
Blog
Americans Pay Taxes On Overseas Income, Including Bank Accounts In So-Called “Tax Havens”
Recently, there has been a lot of coverage of the fact that Romney, Obama, and other politicians like Dick Durbin and Debbie Wasserman…
Blog
Italy Kicks the Can on Labor Reform
Italy continues to put off addressing its most fundamental economic problem: impossibly rigid labor regulation. In this letter to The Wall Street Journal, I explain why…
Study
Freeing Europe From the Euro
The basic principles of the common market could save the European Union, if they were applied to monetary policy. Europe’s currency future lies in competition.
Blog
A Dream Deferred: An Independence Day Story About Becoming An American Citizen
On July 4, Popehat’s Ken White posted a touching story about Filipino World War II veterans belatedly given their promised American citizenship in the…
Blog
How Restricted Borders Replaced Free Migration
By the late 19th century, liberalism had essentially defeated mercantilism as the West's dominant economic philosophy. With its ascent, state attempts to control trade and travel…
Blog
Georgia Offers “Amnesty” to Businesses From Its Tough Immigration Law
More amnesty from immigration laws by prosecutorial discretion! No, not the president’s order to defer deportation for certain children of undocumented immigrants, but the decision…
Blog
Globalization Has Been Happening for a Long Time
Our innate tendency to truck and barter, as Adam Smith put it, is very strong indeed.
Blog
Supreme Court Limits Arizona’s Anti-Immigration Law
The Supreme Court has struck down portions of Arizona’s SB 1070 — the controversial immigration law that targets undocumented migrant workers. The Court ruled that…
Blog
Supreme Court Strikes Down Mandatory Life Sentences Without Parole for Teenagers, But Does Not Cite “International Norms”
The Supreme Court has just ruled 5-to-4 that states cannot mandate life sentences without the possibility of parole for murderers under age 18, no matter…
Blog
Who’s the Outsourcer-in-Chief? Obama
Earlier, after discussing all the jobs that have been sent overseas by the Obama administration using taxpayer subsidies, I dubbed President Obama the “…
Blog
The Myopia of “Green” Business at Rio+20
If cliches carry a grain of truth, the saying, “No good deed goes unpunished,” carries a silo in the business world. One of the sorriest…
Blog
Bailouts Won’t Save Europe, Only Reform Will
As European leaders panic over bailouts for Southern Europe, they miss an important reality. Comprehensive structural reform is the only long-term solution for recovery. Perversely, bailouts…
Daily Mail
Bring on the ‘Brixit’: EU Withdrawal Would Bring Benefits for Both Britain and the US
While much of the worry in the United States about the future of the European Union has focused on Greece, Spain, and Italy and their…
Daily Mail
Reform, Not a Bailout, Will Save Italy
WITH Greece on life support from the European Union and Spain squirming in the financial vice grip of its insolvent banks, talk of an Italian…
Blog
Department of Homeland Security: Some Undocumented Aliens Who Came As Children Can Stay
Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it will begin to grant two-year deportation deferrals for undocumented immigrants up to 30 years old…
Blog
China Takes Hard Stance on EU’s Airline Emissions Charges
It looks like it could begin a trade war — in airplanes. China has announced that it may impound European Union airplanes in retaliation if…
News Release
Report: Labeling Law for Beef, Pork Impedes Canada-U.S. Trade
Washington, D.C., June 13, 2012 – Complicated U.S. food labeling mandates on beef and pork impede trade between the U.S. and Canada without providing any…
Study
MCOOL and the Politics of Country-of-Origin Labeling
The Mandatory Country-of-Origin Label (MCOOL) for beef and pork products was brought into force by the United States in 2008. It imposes uneven tracking, segregating,…
Blog
Seasteading for Enterprise on the High Seas
Complete exit from the state has long been a dream of many libertarians. From the defunct Republic of Minerva (perhaps the only nation every to…
Blog
Bhagwati: How the Multilateral Trade System Is Being Eroded
Trade economist Jagdish Bhagwati’s latest article points out dangers to the world trading system of bilateral and regional trade agreements between unequal partners that…
Blog
The Futility of Religious Profiling at Airport Security Checkpoints
“Obviously, Muslims would be someone you'd look at, absolutely,” former-Senator Rick Santorum said during a GOP presidential debate last year. “Radical Muslims are…
Blog
Carbon Tariffs Again in the Spotlight
Here it comes again — talk of an EU carbon tax. This time it’s a member of the new administration of new French President Francois…
The American Spectator
A Tsunami of Bad Economics
The broken Krugman fallacy. Japan was hit by a tsunami last year on March 11. That’s not news, but the reaction of some economists sure…
Blog
A Fit of Sanity on ITAR
Over at Space Politics, Jeff Foust reports that the House has passed a bill allowing the administration to remove satellites from…
Blog
Give a Man a Fish
Those with an interest in conserving our oceans’ fish stocks and those with an interest in promoting private property should both be interested in my…
Blog
Before Immigration Was Regulated: Pre-20th Century Migration
Early large-scale human migration is the story of dispersal, spreading out as resources were used up and populations expanded past sustainability. The Agricultural Revolution brought…
Blog
Tuna-Dolphin Issue — Again a WTO Decision
No, tuna-dolphin is not a hybrid fish, but the subject of a long-standing trade dispute between Mexico and the United States arising from a 1990…
Blog
Government Lost Tons of Money in the Auto Bailouts, Despite Benefiting from Blind Luck
As John Lott notes, “Having just $34 billion to show after a $100 billion-plus investment would get a chief executive of any private company…
Blog
Let’s Lose LOST
The Law of the Sea Treaty would drastically undermine American sovereignty, giving massive powers to the U.N. (aka the Dictators’ Club of New York), but…
Blog
Cut Military Spending to Prevent Tax Increases; Obama Administration Endangers Anti-Terrorism Efforts by Exposing Undercover Agent
The Cato Institute has identified $17-20 billion in readily-achievable savings to the 2013 military budget. Such cuts can help stave off tax increases. As…
Blog
Greek Tragedy Nears a Dramatic End
With the prospects for a Greek pro-austerity coalition fading rapidly, here is a round-up of the most useful stories on the Greek tragedy: The…
Blog
Immigration and Demographic Doom
America -- the world’s most recent great civilization -- faces a demographic problem that calls for a solution from the dawn of civilization. When civilization…
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 10, 2012: Freeing Our Farms
Current immigration policy keeps many immigrants in dangerous black markets, raises food prices for consumers, makes it difficult for farmers to hire workers and create…
Letters
Letter on Farm Bill Entitlements
Full Document Available in PDF CEI signed a joint letter advocating real reform of…
Blog
Austerity Bites – But It Isn’t the Problem
The election results in Europe, we are told, are a vote against the austerity of "savage" spending cuts. Veronique de Rugy, in National Review Online,…
Blog
European Lessons for America
George Will warns that America’s system of competitive federalism is threatened by our own “Greeces.” (“In Illinois the bills are coming due,” April 27). Europe…
The American Spectator
Forget France, the Greek Elections Are the Beginning of the End for Europe
While much of the world’s attention was concentrated on France’s presidential election last Sunday, the real action was in Greece. French President-elect François Hollande may…
Blog
The Great Unanswered Question About the Eurozone
In a column for the FT today, Wolfgang Munchau lays out what may be the only plausible solution to the Eurozone crisis – for…
Blog
H-2A Visas: Open in Theory, Closed in Practice
[caption id="attachment_54582" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="An Immigrant Worker in Idaho"][/caption] “Our immigration problem’s not going away.” That was the title of my article for…
Blog
When Commodities Analysts Should Stick To Commodities
Some analysts at Barclays attempt to understand the business case for Planetary Resources, and massively fail: Their…
Blog
Central Bankers are Playing a Losing Game
The supposed economic “recovery” is faltering. The sugar high of freshly printed money from the world’s central banks is beginning to wear off. In…
Blog
SB 1070 Summary: Read Arizona’s Controversial Immigration Law!
Arizona’s controversial immigration law -- SB 1070 -- heads to the Supreme Court this week. One can only hope that the Justices do a…
Blog
Super Mario Hasn’t Saved Italy’s Entrepreneurs
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti is full of optimism these days. He has claimed to achieve “historic” reform in Italy’s labor market and to beat…
The American Spectator
Super Mario Talks a Good Game But Italy’s Entrepreneurs Have Lost Out
ITALIAN Prime Minister Mario Monti recently proclaimed “historic” labour reform and even declared the “financial aspect” of the crisis to be over. But don’t pop…
Blog
One Small Step for Human Spaceflight
The International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) have been a thorn in the American space industry’s side for almost fourteen years, ever since Congress moved…
Blog
Initial Media Reactions to CEI’s Space Property Rights Paper
On Monday, CEI published an Issue Analysis on a possible new approach to establishing private real estate off planet under the…
Blog
CEI Podcast for March 29, 2012: The History of American Immigration in Six Minutes
Immigration Policy Analyst Alex Nowrasteh talks about the reasons behind the major historical shifts, and suggests reforms that would make today's immigration system fairer and…
Blog
More Space Socialism From Republicans
Over at the Beyond the Black blog, Bob Zimmerman does what I haven't had time to yet --he excoriates the chairman…
Blog
Agricultural Innovation in the 21st Century: CEI on Capitol Hill
On Monday, I’ll be speaking at a Capitol Hill event sponsored by Americans for Choice and Competition in Agriculture, which also…
Blog
Downgrading the West
In my column for The Washington Examiner today, I discuss the origins and consequences of our horrific, $15+ trillion debt: For decades, the government has been spending…
Blog
CEI Podcast for March 8, 2012: IRS Moves to Fund Foreign Dictators
A new IRS regulation hits the trifecta of enriching foreign dictators, helping them crush dissent, and would raise no revenue for the U.S. government. Vice…
Blog
New IRS Rule Would Benefit Foreign Dictators, Drive $87 Billion Out of U.S. Economy, Could Cause Bank Failures
A new IRS rule would benefit foreign dictators and drive $87 billion out of U.S. economy, as my colleague, Iain Murray, explains in The…
The American Spectator
New IRS Rule Benefits Only Foreign Dictators
Since when is it the U.S. government’s job to report on the financial activities of foreign nationals to their home governments? It is now. The…
The American Spectator
EU’s Proposed Gender Quotas For Corporate Boards
From Isaac Gorodetski’s post on Point of Law: In recent commentary, senior attorney and counsel for special projects with the Competitive Enterprise Institute,…
Blog
European Union Pushes Discriminatory Gender Quotas for Corporate Boards
The European Union (EU) could not keep member states like Greece from cheating on EU budget rules, resulting in Greece's fiscal collapse and the current…
Blog
America Now Has Bigger Welfare State Than Canada, Italy, Denmark, and Austria
America now has a bigger welfare state than most countries, effectively doling out more welfare than Canada, Denmark, Austria, and Italy. As the New York…
Blog
Airline Carbon Taxes: The EU vs. the World
On Tuesday and Wednesday, representatives from 23 nations gathered in Moscow to discuss their response to the European Union’s mandatory airline carbon taxes. CEI’s Fran…
Blog
Constitutions and Democracies
It is the height of hubris to claim that one knows how to build a democracy from scratch. But there are a few common themes…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 211: The Color of Buildings
Officials in Calcutta, India definitely have a favorite color: sky blue.
The American Spectator
Give Greece a Going Away Present, But Go It Must
The rate at which things are deteriorating in Greece now officially exceeds the rate at which desperate Eurocrats weave new fantasies as they try to…
Blog
Taxmageddon Comes Just After the Election
On December 31, shortly after the November election, tax rates will rise across the board in what congressional aides call "Taxmageddon," notes The Washington Post. Not…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 210: Transgendered Air Travelers
Canada is cracking down on the latest terrorist threat to innocent people everywhere: transgendered people. If their appearance doesn't match their ID's listed gender, they're…
Blog
Global Biotech Crop Acreage Up, Plus Clayton Yeutter on the Miracle of American Agriculture
Global planting of biotech crops grew 8 percent last year, to a record high of 395 million total acres, according to…
Blog
CEI Podcast for February 9, 2012: The Immigration Tariff
Alex Nowrasteh proposes scrapping the complex and unfair immigration system and replacing it with a tariff. This is a much more humane approach to immigration,…
Comment
Comments Submitted to U.S.-EU High Level Working Group on Jobs and Growth
Full Document Available in PDF The path to economic growth and prosperity is not something readily planned from above but rather is…
Blog
Liberal Tax Fantasies Punctured
Some liberals have the unrealistic fantasy that by increasing taxes on the top one percent of the population, the government can finance a radically…
Blog
Liberal Justices Complain About American Law Being Too Protective of Civil Liberties and Colorblindness
Recently retired Justice John Paul Stevens, who became the leader of the Supreme Court's liberal bloc in his later years on the Court, complained recently…
The American Spectator
Cuba, Where Sheep Are Trained to Venerate Wolves
With the death of Cuban dissident Wilman Villar Mendoza, Cuba has lost one of its precious remaining brave souls. While a sputtering dissident movement…
BBC
How ‘Europe’ Became a Dirty Word in the U.S. Election
Blog
Romney Pays More Taxes Than He Would in Canada and Many European Countries
As an article in the Financial Post noted, if Mitt Romney were Canadian, he'd pay less tax than he does in America. That’s because most of…
Blog
Enr1 Goes Belly Up; Yet Another Solyndra
"After spending $55 million of a $118.5 million grant from" the U.S. "Department of Energy, Ener1, an Indianapolis-based maker of batteries," has just "declared…
Blog
More Phony Comparisons by American Europhiles
American Europhiles love to make comparisons between the entire United States and the rich Nordic countries in order to advocate America's "Europeanization." But comparing these…
Blog
Obama’s False Claims about Outsourcing and Corporate Taxes in the State of the Union Address
President Obama has spent billions of dollars in taxpayer money on subsidizing foreign firms through his failed "green energy" programs, so it was…
Blog
John Kay on the Market Economy
In a truly excellent column for the Financial Times today, John Kay lays out in a few hundred words a clear defense of the…
Blog
The Non-EU Space Code of Conduct
For over a year, there has been concern that the White House would sign an executive order requiring U.S. space activities to adhere to the…
Blog
CEI Podcast for January 12, 2012: Mistaken Deportations
Immigration Policy Analyst Alex Nowrasteh tells Jakadrien Turner's story and what it means for the immigration reform debate.
BBC
Britain’s Future Lies With America, Not Europe
In 1952, then-U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson said that “Britain has lost an empire but has failed to find a role.” Sadly for Britain,…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 202: Farting Pigs
It isn’t often that one sees Nobel-winning economist Ronald Coase’s name and pig farts in the same sentence. Thanks to a recent court decision in…
Blog
NAFTA: North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement?
The North American Free Trade Agreement liberalized trade between the three North American nations -- Mexico, the United States, and Canada -- to great…
Blog
A “Trade War for Christmas” – EU High Court Rules on Airline Emissions
As expected, the European Court for Justice -- the EU’s highest court -- has ruled that the EU’s plan to charge foreign airlines for…
Blog
Butter-nomics: Protectionism and Food Shortages
Norway, a fully industrialized country and ranked first in the latest Human Development Index, a United Nations’ metric that tries to quantify the quality…
