The year just concluded consisted largely of bark rather than bite as far as trade is concerned. Although the president did pull out of TPP, other threats, including tariffs on Germany, China or Mexico, and pulling out of the WTO, KORUS and NAFTA, rema …
I had planned this week to make some profound comments reflecting on the year past, but I can’t let a WTO Ministerial conference go by without saying a word or two about it. So, profundity will have to wait a bit. The most obvious thing to say about th …
One of my favorite TV shows a few years ago was Weeds, which featured the more or less dysfunctional Botwin family whose widowed mother of two teenage boys had taken to selling marijuana in her suburban neighborhood as a way to make ends meet after the …
By William Reinsch For someone who labored in the weeds of trade policy for 40 years and who reads about it in the newspaper business section, having it now front page above the fold, along with numerous specialized publications devoted to it, is a bit …
NAFTA is back in the news as negotiations were held in Mexico City last week. As expected, there were no major breakthroughs, and with none expected in December, it is clear governments are pushing serious talks into 2018 and possibly later as we appro …
The president’s trip to Asia provided an opportunity to lay out a coherent explanation of his trade policy. Intrepid reporter Doug Palmer summarized that in a Politico piece on November 10: “President Donald Trump’s tough speech on trade today heralds …
For Immediate Release November 16, 2017 Contact: Jim Baird; 202.478.3413; [email protected] Nate Olson, Director of the Stimson Center’s Trade21 program, released video analyzing Trump’s recent trip to Asia and what it means for U …
I don’t usually do commercials in these weekly pieces, but something important happened a few weeks ago that deserves a shout-out — the October 20 launch of the U.S. Global Value Chain Coalition. Composed primarily of retailers like Macy’s and Ta …
By William Reinsch Since the NAFTA negotiations are on vacation for another week, I’m going to take a break from that as well and talk about my longtime favorite subject, China. Thanks to the good offices of Matt Goodman and the Center for Strategic an …
There was an odd flap a couple weeks ago after the leak of slides from Peter Navarro arguing that a “weakened manufacturing base,” presumably caused by trade, has caused a wide variety of social problems including not only the expected factory closings …
By William Reinsch Once upon a time there was an ant and a grasshopper, and they were friends. It was summer, and the grasshopper was having a grand time jumping and playing with his other friends while the ant was very busy storing up food and fuel fo …
By William Reinsch One of my favorite malapropisms growing up was, “There’s a silver cloud in every lining,” a twisted reminder that sometimes good news comes wrapped in smelly old newspaper. That’s a possibility that should be considered if the presid …
By William Reinsch This week I want to elaborate on a point I made in August regarding the Democrats’ trade policy statement, “A Better Deal on Trade and Jobs.” It is clear that trade will continue to be a front-page issue during the Trump administrati …
By William Reinsch Just when everyone is frothing at the mouth over what the Trump administration is doing on trade, along come some things that are not Trump’s fault (at least not yet). For example, just a few days ago the Commerce Department p …
By William Reinsch We seem to be falling into an unfortunate pattern of trade events lately. First, somebody in the White House dreams up an astonishingly bad idea which is then promptly leaked by its opponents, also in the White House, which in turn s …
Fmr. National Foreign Trade Council President and Kelley Drye Sr. Int’l Trade Adviser William Reinsch and CNBC’s Rick Santelli discuss trade policy. Watch the interview here.
By William Reinsch We swamp dwellers were surprised over the past two weeks to see the president confound his own party and make a deal with the Democrats on temporarily funding the government and raising the debt limit and then entertain deals …
The fate of NAFTA goes much beyond trade in North America. Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post aptly marked the launch of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) re-negotiation with a cartoon featuring Uncle Sam boxing a red-shorted fighter ma …
It is now about eight months into the Trump presidency, and it’s time to take stock of his trade policy and accomplishments so far. The short answer is the policy is incoherent and the accomplishments few, but both deserve a deeper dive. The Trump trad …
By William Reinsch I’ve said before that the current administration provides a target-rich environment for discussing trade issues, but every once in a while a moment comes along where there is a gap in the news. As I write this we are between NAFTA ro …
By William Reinsch Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown made an important observation the other day in an interview. He noted the increase in steel imports since the president began threatening to cut them off (up 21.7% YTD from the same period in 2016) and made …
By William Reinsch I have a confession to make. I’m not a big fan of transparency. Even though it is routinely up there with apple pie as a beloved staple of Americana, I think it is a mistake to accord it much importance, particularly in the context o …