(Map showing countries with a VAT in red. Countries without a VAT in blue) Here is a valuable table showing VAT/consumption tax rates across the world for 2013 courtesy of Stewart and Stewart, a DC law firm specializing in international trade issues. While other countries have lowered tariffs, they have raised their VATs. Thus,…
The American Iron and Steel Institute announced the trade arm of the federal government that existing foreign trade barriers distort international trade and are extremely harmful to US companies especially those in the steel industry. [Reposted from Steel Guru | November 6, 2014] The 45 pages of comments, signed by Mr Kevin Dempsey, senior…
Dennis Blair used to lead US military and intelligence agencies. Now he advocates for Japan on trade. The public relations departments of many global institutions have been in high gear recently, helpfully pointing out that the coming GOP majority and President Obama can agree on [job-killing, democracy-outsourcing] trade deals. The recent installment is Dennis Blair…
Republicans won a big victory last night as Americans feel that the economic “recovery” has bypassed them. Jobs and the economy was the number one issue for voters. The GOP successfully argued that their team was the better choice for ordinary Americans. Now they need to fulfill that mandate by focusing upon creating good jobs…
Having won control of Congress, the GOP must now put forward a clear program to create jobs and govern reasonably, lest it give Democrats the upper hand for the 2016 presidential election. In recent months, the economic growth has accelerated, but most economists don’t see the pace picking up enough to solve the nation’s shortage…
The Republican victory in the Senate won’t guarantee passage of stalled trade legislation, but it does sideline the bill’s biggest foe this year: Sen. Harry Reid. [By William Mauldin, 11/5/14, The Wall Street Journal] The Senate majority leader, a Nevada Democrat, dealt a body blow to President Barack Obama ’s trade policy in January when…
The Department of Commerce (Commerce) preliminarily determined on June 3 that the Chinese government subsidizes the production and export of crystalline silicon photovoltaic solar cells (solar cells), as well as modules, laminates, and/or panels consisting of solar cells, with subsidy rates ranging from 18.56 percent to 35.21 percent. [by Ruby Hong | July 2014 |…
For immediate Release October 31, 2014 Billings, Mont. – Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia again upheld the U.S. country of origin labeling (COOL) law by issuing the fourth and fifth pro-COOL court orders that effectively establish that the COOL law is constitutional, that Congress had the authority to…
On September 15, 2014, just before Congress went into recess for the midterm elections, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2996, the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation (RAMI) Act of 2013. [by Lauren M.. Donoghue | November 2014 | Trade & Mfg Alert] RAMI aims to grow U.S. manufacturing by strengthening collaboration between government, educational…
The economy grew at a 3.5% annualized rate last quarter, in large part because of fewer imports. It shows that analysts are wrong to rely on debt-driven consumer spending to fuel growth. The reason they are wrong is because we don’t want consumer spending to be the basis of our next level of growth. We…