Trade finance will play a crucial role in President Barack Obama's goal of doubling US exports by 2015. Almost 90 percent of exports depend on trade finance in some form—direct credit, credit insurance, or loan guarantees. Even though official export credit agencies (ECAs), including the US...

The US budget outlook has the makings of a fiscal disaster, but it is the beginning of economic challenges, not the end. Among other challenges, a tax system that discourages business and erodes American competitiveness ranks high. The United States lags well behind other advanced countries, not...

The Doha Round is the longest-running trade liberalization negotiation in the postwar era. Despite its longevity, the end is not yet in sight as parties disagree on the depth of liberalization necessary in agriculture and nonagricultural market access (NAMA). This rift is prolonging the Round's...

The Doha Round is not the first multilateral negotiation to collapse under the weight of substantive disputes and tactical blunders, but revival this time requires a greater miracle than in the darkest days of the Tokyo or Uruguay Rounds. After near-death moments, those talks concluded with a...

On January 28, 2009, the US House of Representatives passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Out of the bill's 700 text pages, a small half-page section attracted enormous media attention: the section requiring that all public projects funded by the stimulus plan must use only...

Trade ministers from member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) convened in Hong Kong in December 2005 to jump-start the flagging Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations. The ministerial accomplished more in spirit than in substance and placed more emphasis on negotiating...

Following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, President Bush prepared the country for a "war on terrorism". As outlined in his speech before the joint session of Congress on September 20, the war on terrorism will be fought on many fronts: diplomatic, intelligence,...

Trade and investment in services are difficult to measure, and the regulatory barriers that inhibit the free flow of services are hard to quantify. As a result, very little attention has been paid to dismantling barriers to services trade and investment in free trade negotiations. This paper...

The KORUS FTA was signed on June 30, 2007, but has not yet been sent to Congress for ratification. US concerns about auto and beef trade are the main stumbling blocks. At the Toronto G-20 Summit in June 2010, Presidents Obama and Lee Myung Bak tasked their officials to find solutions by the...

After years of inaction, the three partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)--Canada, Mexico, and the United States--now recognize the imperative to start the long-term process of substantially reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The American Climate and Energy Security...