Posts tagged…Protection
Good idea or insidious threat?
Tue, Dec 08 2009When an economy has trade leverage, the threat of discriminatory duties need not be simple protectionism.
"The US can help China make the necessary adjustments toward a reduction in imbalances by adopting a uniform tariff of 10 per cent on all Chinese imports, based on their values when they enter the US. Six months after the establishment of this tariff, the rate would increase by one percentage…
Read more…Global Trade Alert
Fri, Jul 03 2009
Just before the London G-20 Meeting in April, Andy Stoler and I wrote a paper for a booklet published by the Center for Economic Policy Research in which we suggested that the best way to make G-20 governments live up to their promises was to expose their misdeeds on trade policy—including those that nominally complied with their WTO obligation—using a public website.
Specifically, we recommended…
Anti-dumping actions on the rise
Fri, May 08 2009
Let me first of all get in an 'I told you so'.
Anti-dumping complaints are counter-cyclical. Invariably, the numbers rise, with a lag, as industrial output slumps. We've seen declining levels up to 2007 but now… WTO is reporting a 27% year-on-year rise in the number of investigations.
"The Members reporting the highest number of new initiations during July-December 2008 were India, reporting 42,…
Quibble over ‘slippage’ on protection
Tue, Apr 28 2009Meanwhile in Geneva… the WTO delegations have been debating whether the Secretariat's second report on protectionist measures (issued a month ago) showed 'significant slippage' in Member governments' commitment to hold the line, or not.
The U.S. ambassador disagreed with the proposition that Member governments had begun to default on their promises.
“We understand the danger of an incremental…
China worries about U.S. carbon tariffs
Wed, Apr 22 2009In a speech in the U.S. yesterday, Tung Chee-hwa, vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) hit out at plans for carbon tariffs in the Democrats' bill for emission controls
"A top adviser to the Chinese government on Tuesday warned that a proposed US border tax on carbon sensitive materials ‘smells of protectionism’ and could spark retaliation from developing…
Empty words won’t limit the ‘wriggle room’
Tue, Mar 24 2009Democracy ensures we get the governments we deserve.
Gideon Rachman seems to think we deserve only to be consoled for the political dilemma of G20 leaders rather than offered real solutions to the frailties of the global trade framework. He agrees the problem is the threat of 'wiggle room' protection:
"[I]f the world’s political leaders start deliberately increasing barriers to trade, they will…
Can the G20 get Doha done?
Fri, Mar 20 2009
The EC Commissioner for Trade, Catherine Ashton, gave a talk in the past couple of days to the Carnegie Endowment in Washington in which she urged, among other things, a G20 commitment to the quick resumption and completion of the Doha WTO negotiations.
"To truly deliver on our G20 commitment, we need to turn the rhetoric into reality and complete the Doha Round of world trade talks. This…
A tangle of carbon taxes
Thu, Mar 19 2009A big storm on the horizon… get ready for it
Border tax adjustments ('carbon tariffs') are inevitable once mandatory carbon taxes or emission caps with market value are applied to production. Now, the Obama administration acknowledges that:
"Mr. Chu, speaking before a House science panel, said establishing a carbon tariff would help 'level the playing field' if other countries haven't imposed…
An empty G20 communique
Mon, Mar 16 2009Writer Chris Giles in the Financial Times explains the five tests of 'relevance and importance' for Ministerial Communiqués. On his reckoning (I agree) the G20 Finance Ministers failed all of them.
"[T]he final statement crafted by the ministers was an attempt to suggest a comprehensive action plan was working. It lacked credibility and that will not help. Worse, the lack of substance threatens to…
Protection by another name
Thu, Mar 12 2009Christopher Caldwell on the seductions of 'bailout' protectionism
"Protection generally means paying more money for lousier products. As such, it is a kind of tax. If there is a chance that less free trade will make the world economy less volatile or put a few million people back to work, then it is a tax that Americans are increasingly willing to pay." FT.com
Would web surveillance of protection work?
Tue, Mar 10 2009
In our paper for the Evenett and Baldwin book on 'murky protectionism', Andrew Stoler and I outline a surveillance mechanism for the G20 that we think will dissuade governments from making regulations that would harm world trade (further, see the graph at left.)
The mechanism we propose has not been used previously to expose protectionism but it is certainly in use in other contexts to bring…
Can the G20 halt ‘murky’ protectionism?
Sun, Mar 08 2009
What should the G20 do, when they meet in London next month, to put an end to the growing use of what I've been calling 'wiggle-room' protection? Is 'murky' protectionism causing the coming collapse in trade volumes? Or will protectionism rise as a result? Supposing that they wanted to, could the G20 really crack-down on actions that close markets or discriminate against imports but are not…