On February 4, 2016, President Obama signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement on behalf of the United States. The TPP agreement has been in negotiation behind closed doors since 2010 between the United States and 11 other countries around the Pacific Rim: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.…
In 2010, Canada hosted the G7 finance ministers in Nunavut, the country’s frigid Arctic province that is home to a mere 30,000 Inuit people. [Parag Khanna| April 11, 2016 |Market Watch] Canada’s “Northern Strategy” for the Arctic was a centerpiece of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s tenure, resulting in a larger coast guard, new icebreakers,…
BEIJING (Reuters) – The United States has labeled China’s internet censorship a trade barrier in a report for the first time since 2013, saying worsening online restrictions are damaging the business of U.S. companies. [Paul Carsten and Michael Martina| April 8, 2016 |Reuters] Since Xi Jinping became China’s president that year, the U.S. had not listed China’s…
To the Editor: American families devastated by the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs and lower wages would be dumbfounded by Eduardo Porter’s March 30 Economic Scene column, “The Jobs Nafta Saved.” Germany, Japan and other countries continue to have strong domestic auto industries while also paying livable, middle-class wages. American corporations take advantage of the North…
Editorial note: CPA believes trade law enforcement must be drastically increased, however enforcement is not enough without a goal to balance overall trade. [John Veroneau and Shara Aranoff| April 6, 2016 |Politico] Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton may not agree on much, but they have both criticized the government for failing to adequately enforce U.S.…
If you’re feeling like the Trans-Pacific Partnership doesn’t have much chance of passing this year, you’re not alone. During a lunchtime discussion of foreign policy and trade experts, Commerce Undersecretary for International Trade Stefan Selig was practically the only person who was optimistic that the deal could go through this year, our Doug Palmer reports…
April 6, 2016 Contact: Paola Masman, Media Director 202-688-5145 ext 2, [email protected] Washington ~ The federal government announced that the US trade deficit worsened yet again in February 2016. Modern trade deals continue to cause failures in US trade performance and loss of dynamic, diverse manufacturing and agricultural supply chains. Here are the relevant points from the…
If there’s one thing Americans understand, it’s cars. [Leon Lazaroff| April 5, 2016 |The Street] The U.S. auto industry, all but dead following the U.S. banking crisis of 2008, has largely recovered from the recession. Domestic auto production is breaking records, fueled in recent quarters by the declining price of gasoline. General Motors(GM – Get Report) and Chrysler, a division of Fiat…
Michael Stumo, CEO of CPA, wrote a letter to the editor regarding the article: Long-Simmering Anger About Trade Is Boiling Over for Voters in New York Times. His response was published. There is an old joke about a shipwrecked economist advising his stranded colleagues how to open a can of food by saying “assume we have a…
One of the truly dumbest arguments I hear in favor of free trade is that national borders are “arbitrary.” [Ian Fletcher| April 4, 2016 |Huffington Post] I usually get this from right-wing libertarian types, but occasionally from “one world” leftists, too. But it’s not true. For a start, calling national borders “arbitrary” is simply irrelevant,…
