By Daniel Ikenson
My esteemed colleague Sallie James broke ground last summer with an excellent expose of the corporate welfare role played by the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Until this past weekend, Sallie’s had been about the only analysis in the public domain to find the Ex-Im Bank’s activities unseemly, market-distorting, and anathema to free market [...]
The Ex-Im Bank and Crony Capitalism is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Daniel Ikenson
Has the Chinese government indulged in protectionist, provocative or otherwise illiberal policies that have, on occasion, violated its commitment to the rules of international trade? Yes. Do the Chinese maintain other policies that very likely would be found to violate China’s WTO obligations? Yes. Is the U.S. government within its rights to bring formal complaints [...]
Time for Some Rapprochement in U.S.-China Economic Relations is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Daniel Ikenson
U.S. policymakers hold the key to vastly improved economic relations with China. They also have the key to the vehicle that will take the bilateral relationship over the cliff, which appears to be the route that has been chosen. Republican House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp will introduce legislation this afternoon that makes explicit the [...]
Congress Poised to Escalate the U.S.-China Trade War is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Daniel Ikenson
An emerging narrative in 2012 is that a proliferation of protectionist, treaty-violating, or otherwise illiberal Chinese policies is to blame for worsening U.S.-China relations. China trade experts from across the ideological and political spectra have lent credibility to that story. Business groups that once counseled against U.S. government actions that might be perceived by the Chinese [...]
Understanding the U.S.-China ‘Trade War’ is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
In 2004, the yuan ended the year 8.28 to the dollar. In 2011, it ended the year 6.31 to the dollar, a 24-percent rise. In 2004, America’s trade deficit with China was $162 billion; in 2011, it was $295 billion. Those demanding a 30 percent appreciation got most of it—and the trade deficit mushroomed $133 billion. The currency crowd might respond that the situation is complicated, that there are many factors and different ways to measure the exchange rate. True. So why would anyone serious about this issue expect another … More
By Daniel Ikenson
Not to get him in trouble with his boss, but U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk has been sounding like a free trader lately. I’m beginning to think Ambassador Kirk consumes the analyses we produce over here at the Cato Institute’s Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies. Well, let me rephrase: that he consumes [...]
Is the U.S. Trade Representative a Closet Free Trader? is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Daniel Ikenson
When China joined the WTO in December 2001, one of the many terms it agreed to was to allow the United States to continue to treat it as a “non-market economy“ under U.S. antidumping law for a period of 15 years. China has regretted that concession ever since, and there are precious few gestures that [...]
President Obama Could Improve Relations with China at the Stroke of His Pen is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
So you think you’re free? Thanks to big government spending and exploding debt, the United States — and indeed the world — is less economically free today than it was a year ago, according to the 18th annual Index of Economic Freedom, released yesterday by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal. Economic freedom — the ability of individuals to control the fruits of their labor and pursue their dreams — is central to prosperity around the world. Heritage and The Wall Street Journal measure economic freedom by studying its pillars: the … More
In this week’s Heritage in Focus, Heritage’s Kim Holmes, co-author of the annual Index of Economic Freedom, discusses this year’s index. Click here to listen.
How does the U.S. rank in economic freedom this year? How does economic fre…
President Obama concluded 2011 by accomplishing the remarkable feat of making the United States look worse than Communist China when it comes to promoting global economic freedom. On December 29, the Obama Administration announced that sleeping bags from developing countries will now be subject to a 9 percent tariff. President Obama’s decision to hike tariffs on sleeping bags from developing countries came just one month after Hu Jintao, president of the People’s Republic of China and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, announced the elimination of tariffs on … More
