Trump’s ‘energy dominance’ strategy starting to crack Eastern European markets
The U.S. Energy Department announced Aug. 21 that a cargo ship full of Pennsylvania coal would be sailing out of Baltimore, 5,600 nautical miles across the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean and Black Seas...
View ArticleA history lesson on why Trump shouldn’t burn down NAFTA
On Aug. 24, 1817, in retaliation for American troops burning Upper Canada’s Parliament Buildings in the Battle of York, British soldiers ransacked the original White House and set it ablaze. As we now...
View ArticleWith Steve Bannon out, Trump’s White House still isn’t pro-free trade
President Donald Trump’s recent decision to part ways with chief strategist Steve Bannon — until now, the White House’s leading voice of so-called “economic nationalism” — has been interpreted by some...
View ArticleLet’s build on NAFTA’s strengths
The following op-ed was co-authored by Clark Packard, outreach manager and trade analyst for the R Street Institute. Even as renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement just got underway,...
View ArticleCrystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells (Whether or Not Partially or Fully...
The Hon. Lisa R. Barton Secretary to the Commission U.S. International Trade Commission 500 E Street, SW Washington, D.C. 20436 Dear Secretary Barton: On behalf of the R Street Institute, a pragmatic...
View ArticleTrump is dangerously close to abdicating economic leadership on trade in the...
President Donald Trump’s complaints about China, Mexico, and other nations with whom the United States has a bilateral trade deficit date back decades before the 2016 presidential campaign. But now...
View ArticleAdjusting a carbon price at the border
The attached policy study was co-authored by R Street Energy Policy Director Josiah Neeley. Economists from across the political spectrum support a carbon tax as the most efficient means to reduce...
View Article‘Bring me some tariffs’?
The following op-ed was co-authored by R Street Electricity Policy Manager Devin Hartman. Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, then-candidate Trump promised a bold new trade agenda for the...
View ArticleSolar panels, washing machines and free-trade cronyism
What does Suniva (a bankrupt, Atlanta-based, Chinese-owned solar firm founded in 2007) have in common with Whirlpool (a company founded in Benton Harbor, Mich., in 1911)? On first blush, not much. One...
View ArticleIs the sun rising on solar protectionism?
Suniva Inc.—a Chinese-owned, Atlanta-based and bankrupt solar firm—filed a petition in May 2017 with the International Trade Commission seeking import relief. Eventually joined in the petition by...
View ArticleA 21st century NAFTA must preserve copyright balance
The following op-ed was co-authored by R Street Associate Fellow Bill Watson. The good news about the North American Free Trade Agreement is that it has fostered economic growth in Canada, Mexico and...
View ArticleShould we keep pretending there will be a new NAFTA?
Negotiators from Canada, Mexico and the United States very busily worked through a rapid succession of negotiating rounds last week to draft a new North American Free Trade Agreement. Press reports and...
View ArticleBroken trade laws and rising protectionism: Whirlpool fights imports, but who...
The following op-ed was co-authored by Brandon Arnold, executive vice president of the National Taxpayers Union. According to a recent ruling by the International Trade Commission, imported residential...
View ArticleThe way farm subsidies work makes no sense
The following op-ed was co-authored by R Street Research Assistant Randy Loayza. The Trump administration has oscillated in recent weeks between pledging to renegotiate and threatening to withdraw from...
View ArticleAnxiety over NAFTA causing slide of the peso, and an increase in imports from...
President Donald Trump and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer have made reducing the trade deficit a central focus of the in-progress renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement....
View ArticleOpen Letter to President Trump: Avoid Trade Restrictions on Solar Panels
Dear President Trump, On behalf of the undersigned organizations, representing millions of Americans, we urge you to reject any trade restrictions in Inv. No. TA-201-075 (Safeguard). If trade...
View ArticleOn GATT’s 70th birthday, free trade remains the wellspring of peace
It was 70 years ago today—Oct. 27, 1947—that representatives from 23 nations gathered at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, to finalize and sign the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade....
View ArticleLetter: We Urge USTR Negotiators, Congress to Consider These Points During...
Ambassador Lighthizer, Chairmen Brady and Hatch, and Ranking Members Neal and Wyden, Over the 23 years since its inception, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has proven to be a success....
View ArticleLatest reduction in duties shows promise in US-Canada softwood lumber trade
A recent decision by the U.S. Commerce Department could signal de-escalation of what has been one of the most fraught American trade disputes with Canada. Following the announcement of preliminary...
View ArticleDon’t let a potential trade violation block tax reform
The following op-ed was co-authored by R Street Senior Fellow Ian Adams. The House Ways and Means Committee is set to do its part this week in marking up the Tax Cut and Jobs Act, the long overdue...
View ArticleNAFTA negotiators should respect domestic labor rules
The following blog post was co-authored by R Street Research Assistant Randy Loayza. As the United States, Canada and Mexico continue to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, political...
View ArticleFree trade without American characteristics
Since the United States withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership earlier this year, the remaining 11 members have been deciding whether and how to proceed with the U.S.-led agreement without the...
View ArticleUSTR Comments: Re: Potential Action: Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Cells...
The Hon. Robert Lighthizer United States Trade Representative The Office of the United States Trade Representative 600 17th St. NW Washington, D.C. 20006 Re: Potential Action: Crystalline Silicon...
View ArticleWashington Principles on Copyright Balance in Trade Agreements
There is a growing recognition that the digital environment demands expansions in rights to use copyrighted material without permission of owners to facilitate a range of modern activities from social...
View ArticleThe winners in the modern economy won’t be protection seekers
After determining that increased imports of washing machines and component parts are causing “serious injury” to the American washing-machine industry, the United States International Trade Commission...
View ArticleSuniva and Whirlpool trade cases clearly show safeguard laws are broken
In August, President Trump reportedly told his top advisers to “bring me tariffs.” Perhaps the president was envisioning tariffs on steel or automobiles, but he will soon have to decide whether to levy...
View ArticleWorld Trade Organization conference could be consequential for e-commerce
* This piece was cowritten by Farzaneh Badiei who serves as the Executive Director of the Internet Governance Project. Introduction The World Trade Organization (WTO) will be holding a ministerial...
View ArticleWill Congress forget to renew an important free-trade program?
*Randy Loayza cowrote this piece. While NAFTA renegotiations and adjacent bilateral trade disputes have dominated the current discourse on trade policy, the future of the less-discussed Generalized...
View ArticleMega-Regional Musical Chairs: CPTPP-UK?
It’s been reported that the U.K. government is evaluating whether it should seek to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership in its quest to shape a post-Brexit trade policy. This has prompted some...
View ArticleSteel imports pose no threat to national security
The United States is the fourth-largest steel producer in the world, producing nearly 80 million tons of crude steel in 2016. However, U.S. steel production has declined by more than 20 percent in the...
View ArticleSteel protectionism is a slippery slide
WASHINGTON (January 10, 2018) – Restricting steel imports, including those from China, would prove both an economic and strategic mistake, argues R Street Trade Policy Counsel Clark Packard in a new...
View ArticleAlex Pollock speaks at the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee...
R Street Distinguished Senior Fellow Alex J. Pollock’s opening statement to the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Monetary Policy and Trade, at their Jan. 10, 2018 hearing “A...
View ArticleA role for trade rules in Internet governance
The Internet Governance Forum is a yearly meeting in which civil society, government, and private sector representatives from around the world convene to talk about internet policy issues. The IGF...
View ArticleAmid chaos at WTO, environmental goods offer Trump an opportunity
Candidate Donald Trump promised swift and aggressive action on trade policy during the 2016 presidential campaign. But aside from withdrawing the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the...
View ArticleInternet Law Scholars and Organizations Address Ambassador Lighthizer,...
January 21, 2018 Dear Ambassador Lighthizer, Secretary Guajardo, and Minister Freeland, We are American, Canadian, and Mexican scholars and advocates in the field of Internet law and policy. We write...
View ArticleR Street Disappointed by President Trump’s Decision in Suniva Case
WASHINGTON (Jan. 22, 2018) – The R Street Institute expressed deep disappointment at today’s announcement that President Donald Trump has decided to impose tariffs of 30 percent in the first year on...
View ArticleA stricter NAFTA is a more harmful NAFTA
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is set to attend this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as are Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, Mexican Economy Minister...
View ArticleReasonable transparency reform for trade negotiations
I was encouraged by the recent adoption of a Resolution on Transparency in trade negotiations at the 2017 meeting of the Internet Governance Forum last month in Geneva. A grouping of mostly civil...
View ArticleR Street Disappointed by Commerce Department’s Steel Imports Report
WASHINGTON (Feb. 16, 2018) – The R Street Institute disagrees strongly with the U.S. Commerce Department’s affirmative finding that current steel imports jeopardize national security and urges...
View ArticleTillerson’s attention to energy, trade in Latin America a clever use of...
*William Murray co-wrote this piece. Low expectations were set early for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s recent weeklong trip to Latin America and the Caribbean that involved visits to Mexico,...
View ArticleOpen Letter to President Trump: Free Market Organizations Oppose Import...
Feb. 22, 2018 Dear President Trump, On behalf of the following organizations, we urge you not to impose tariffs or other restrictions on imported steel and aluminum pursuant to the recommendations made...
View ArticleSteel protectionism may start a trade war if Trump isn’t careful
In the wake of a long-awaited Commerce Department report finding that imported steel jeopardizes national security, it now falls on President Trump whether to invoke the enormous powers granted him...
View ArticleR Street disagrees with White House decision to levy tariffs on steel and...
WASHINGTON (Mar. 1, 2018) – The R Street Institute disagrees vehemently with President Donald Trump’s decision to levy heavy global tariffs of 10 percent on imported aluminum and 25 percent on imported...
View ArticleWBAL Morning News with Bryan Nehman: Clark Packard on Trump’s Steel and...
Clark Packard joins WBAL’s Morning News with Bryan Nehman to discuss the impact that the steel and aluminum tariffs proposed by President Trump would have on the economy. This work is licensed under a...
View ArticleR Street urges Congress to overturn President Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs
WASHINGTON (March 8, 2018) – The R Street Institute is dismayed by President Donald Trump’s decision to sign terribly destructive tariffs of 10 percent on aluminum imports and 25 percent on steel...
View ArticleTrump’s steel tariffs are different from Bush’s – they’re worse
President Donald Trump’s decision to move forward with tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on imported aluminum has drawn comparisons to the steel tariffs President George W. Bush...
View ArticleOpen Letter to Congress: Enact the Global Trade Accountability Act
To Member of Congress: We the undersigned free market organizations, representing millions of hardworking Americans, urge you to cosponsor S.177/H.R.5281, the “Global Trade Accountability Act,”...
View ArticleClark Packard on FBN Varney & Co
Clark Packard discusses the implications of President Trump’s announcement on steel and aluminum tariffs with Stuart Varney. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0...
View ArticleCongress needs to grow a spine and stand up to Trump on trade
Despite promising a bold protectionist agenda on the campaign trail, other than withdrawing the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, President Trump’s first year in office was fairly...
View ArticleR Street encourages White House to engage partners in WTO dispute with China
WASHINGTON (March 22, 2018) – In light of a report from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative accusing China of “unfair and harmful acquisition of U.S. technology,” the R Street Institute...
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