Trump Administration Focuses on Trade Enforcement
By Jeff Ferry, CPA Research Director
The Trump Administration is getting tough with foreign nations that don’t play by the rules of free and fair trade. That’s the message we’re getting from Administration sources.
British Trade Boost Shows Currency Devaluation Works
By Jeff Ferry, CPA Research Director
Establishment free traders often claim trade policy reform is futile, urging us instead to simply trust the free market. Recent experience in Britain shows that one trade policy—currency devaluation—does work, and pretty quickly too. Despite imports growing more expensive, both consumption and exports increased.
...Trump’s Executive Orders Will Help Manufacturing Revival
By Jeff Ferry, CPA Research Director
On Friday, President Trump announced two executive orders that look like the beginning of a major offensive on trade policy. “Today….I set the stage for a great revival of American manufacturing,” the President said in Friday’s White House briefing.
Support House Resolution 37: Eliminate The U.S. Trade Deficit!
By Jeff Ferry, CPA Research Director
Two forward-thinking congressmen have introduced a congressional resolution urging the federal government to eliminate the U.S. trade deficit. This would be a major step forward in U.S. economic policy and a crucial step towards rebuilding the U.S. economy and restoring the American Dream of...
Aggressive Trump Trade Strategy Begins To Emerge
By Jeff Ferry, CPA Research Director
Two developments in recent days provide an early indication that the Trump Administration is determined to take a new approach to international trade. And it looks like this new approach is aggressively focused on trade agreement reform and policies that could lead to higher U.S...
China Targets World Leadership in Microchips
Jeff Ferry, Research Director, CPA
The decision last month by microchip manufacturer GlobalFoundries to build a chipmaking plant in China reinforced fears in the U.S. technology industry over China’s ambitious plans to become a major player in the world semiconductor industry.
January Trade Deficit Surge Driven By Rising China, Japan, Germany Deficits
By Jeff Ferry, CPA Research Director
The United States’ trade deficit surged 12% in January 2017 to hit $48.5 billion, its highest level in almost five years.
Why a Trade War Won’t Happen…But We Would Win If It Did
By Jeff Ferry, CPA Research Director
There has been lots of talk of the danger of “trade wars” in newspapers in recent months. The Trade War Alarmists are likely wrong.
Economic Analysis: Re-Exports Are Not Real Exports
By Jeff Ferry, CPA Research Director
Today the CPA published a new article on the U.S.’s Top Ten Bilateral Deficit Nation Trading Partners featuring the latest data for last year. You can read it here. In a nutshell, our trade deficit in goods has increased twenty-fold in the last 25...
Economic Analysis: America’s Top 10 Trade Deficit Countries: A Closer Look
By Jason Cooper, CPA Research Assistant
In 2016 the U.S. ran an overall $946 billion trade deficit* in goods, seven times the 1992 level. In the 23 years from 1992 to 2016, the deficit has risen dramatically, from 1.3% of our GDP to 5.1%. Our global goods deficit is driven...
Fixing the Bloated Dollar
By Jeff Ferry, CPA Research Director
The fear is growing that a rising dollar could sabotage any effort by the Trump Administration to improve the U.S. trade balance as a means of improving the health of our manufacturing industry.
CPA Commentary: More Economists and Leading Politicians Recognize the Trade Problem
By Jeff Ferry, CPA Research Director
Sometimes the victories come so thick and fast, you have to sit down, take a deep breath, and count them.
Trade Deficit Hits Four-Year High
By Jeff Ferry, CPA Research Director
The United States trade deficit for 2016 rose to $502.3 billion, its highest level since 2012, as a growing U.S. economy, a rising U.S. dollar, mercantilist practices by many foreign trading partners, and generally lackluster economic growth in foreign markets combined to make the trade...
News Analysis: Trade Deficit Worsens, 2016 Manufacturing Deficit Heading for $800B
By Jeff Ferry, CPA Research Director
The US trade deficit grew 6.8% in November to $45.2 billion, its worst monthly figure in nine months. The November report hammered home the challenge of a large and growing manufacturing deficit and large bilateral deficits with many trading partners.
Economic Analysis: The Job Cost of Imports
By Jeff Ferry, CPA Research Director
A new CPA economic analysis estimates that for each $1 billion of additional imports into the U.S. costs the nation 4,552 jobs. On this basis, the rise in imports from 2009 to 2015 has meant the loss of over 3 million jobs.
Legislative Analysis: History of Buy American Legislation from 1933 to Today
By Jason Cooper, CPA Research Assistant
US Buy America laws mandate that the government prefer domestic products over foreign ones when making purchases. Free trade agreements (FTAs) carve out exceptions to that mandate by requiring that the government treat the products of most of our major trading partners...
Legislative Analysis: The Enforce and Protect Act of 2016
By Jason Cooper, CPA Research Assistant
The USA places duties on trade in response to unlawful trade practices by foreign companies, but in some cases companies illegally bypass those duties, gambling that they won’t get caught. In February of 2016 the Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) was passed to...
Balanced Trade: Guiding US Economic Rebirth and Job Creation
By Jeff Ferry, CPA Research Director
Summary
The US government should adopt balanced trade as a key performance measure for trade policy. Following 40 years of recurrent trade deficits, our industrial base is depleted, American living standards have suffered, many of our cities and towns are in disrepair, and social...
New report on dumb economic studies of trade deals
By Michael Stumo
The US International Trade Commission (USITC) and private think tanks usually do "studies" to project the impacts of trade deals. We now have more information on how freakishly wrong those studies are.
The working class election
By Michael Stumo
While identity politics was a big part of the media's election narrative, those issues did not actually drive voters' election choices. Instead, exit polls showed they voted on the basis of the economy, not identity.