October 30, 2001
Policy Forum: The Antidumping Epidemic: Causes, Victims, Implications, and Potential Solutions (, )

Featuring Thomas Prusa, Professor of Economics, Rutgers University; James Sumner, President, USA Poultry and Egg Export Council; Chuck Lambert, Economist, National Cattlemen's Beef Association; Zygmunt Jablonski, Senior Counsel Law Department, Georgia-Pacific Corporation; Brink Lindsey, Director of Trade Policy Studies, Cato Institute.

The U.S. antidumping law has long been a favored tool of U.S. industries seeking to quell foreign competition. Despite significant welfare losses precipitated by antidumping measures, the law has been deemed a sacred cow, off-limits to revision and even discussion in any future trade agreements. This myopic perspective undermines prospects for further trade liberalization and ignores an important new reality: antidumping laws are proliferating rapidly throughout the world, closing or limiting markets to U.S. exporters and threatening to reverse gains achieved through years of market access liberalization.

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July 27, 2001
HILL BRIEFING
Threats to Trade Promotion Authority: Antidumping Laws and Labor and Environmental Sanctions

Progress on trade liberalization has been stymied by two primary controversies: Should the administration be willing to place U.S. antidumping laws on the negotiating table? Should labor and environmental standards be enforced through trade sanctions? In his new Policy Analysis, "Coming Home to Roost: Proliferating Antidumping Laws and the Growing Threat to US Exports," Daniel Ikenson, Cato Institute, exposes the rapid spread of antidumping protectionism throughout the world and its harm to US exports. He calls for US officials to work with like-minded governments to stem and reverse this tide.  Daniel Griswold, Cato Institute, addresses the second controversy in his new report, "Trade, Labor and the Environment: How Blue and Green Sanctions Threaten Higher Standards." Advocates of sanctions insist that future trade agreements, negotiated under trade promotion authority, contain such standards enforced by the threat of sanctions. However, in his new report, Griswold concludes that the use of sanctions would be counterproductive and would virtually rule out future regional and multilateral trade agreements.

June 20, 2001
Cuba Policy in the Bush Administration: Future Directions and Opportunities for Change (, )

Featuring Mark Falcoff, American Enterprise Institute; John S. Kavulich II, U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council; Ignacio Sosa, One World Investment; Mark Groombridge, Cato Institute.

President George W. Bush will face his first Cuba policy test this summer when he must decide whether to continue waiving implementation of the controversial Libertad Act, popularly known as Helms-Burton. This legislation, which targets our allies for investing in expropriated property, has created considerable controversy in both the European Union and Canada. President Bush will have to make a decision on Helms-Burton at a time when there is a growing split in the Republican Party over the wisdom of the Cuban embargo at-large. Many Republicans are now calling for a broader policy of engagement and a relaxation of sanctions against Cuba. Speakers include Mark Falcoff, American Enterprise Institute; John S. Kavulich II, U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, Inc.; Mark Groombridge, Cato Institute; and Ignacio Sosa, One World Investment, LP.

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April 4, 2001
"The Making of Modern Economics." (, )

Featuring the author Mark Skousen, Editor, Forecasts & Strategies and columnist for Forbes magazine, with comments by Peter Boettke, George Mason University.

The remarkable story of free-market capitalism's long-running battle against Keynesianism, Marxism, socialism and other "isms" is largely unknown outside of economic circles. Yet it is a compelling drama, complete with a hero, Adam Smith, and his celebrated "system of natural liberty." The running plot involves many unexpected twists and turns: sometimes our hero is left for dead, only to be resuscitated by his free-market allies. The story even has a surprise ending. In his new book, The Making of Modern Economics, economist and writer Mark Skousen unifies the story of economics by ranking all major economic thinkers either friends or foes of Smith's invisible hand doctrine. The book provides a comprehensive review and critique of every major economic school, including classical economics, Keynesianism, monetarism, Austrian economics, institutionalism, and Marxism--recording the lives and ideas of influential economists often ignored in other histories.

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March 30, 2001
HILL BRIEFING
Nailing the Homeowner? Assessing the Impact of Trade Restrictions on Softwood Lumber ()

Featuring Rep. Jim Kolbe, (R-Ariz.); Rep. Steny Hoyer, (D-Md.); Mark Groombridge, Center for Trade Policy Studies, Cato Institute; Brink Lindsey, Center for Trade Policy Studies, Cato Institute.

Even though Canada is the United States' largest trading partner and most goods flow freely across the border, one US industry-softwood lumber-continues to lobby successfully for the imposition of trade barriers against our neighbor to the north. Currently, the Softwood Lumber Agreement imposes quotas on exports from four Canadian provinces. A recent Cato study, "Nailing the Homeowner: The Economic Impact of Trade Protection of the Softwood Lumber Industry," finds that trade restrictions add an estimated $50 to $80 per thousand board feet to the price of lumber-a 20 to 35 percent increase over the free-trade price level. Critics of the current policy claim that trade barriers drive up costs for lumber-using businesses and price some 300,000 lower-income families out of the housing market. Advocates of lumber protection, on the other hand, claim that trade barriers are necessary to offset unfair subsidies enjoyed by Canadian lumber producers. The SLA is set to expire in April 2001, and the US and Canadian governments are considering options that might replace the SLA.

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March 26, 2001
HILL BRIEFING
"Who Are the Real Free Traders in Congress?"

Featuring Rep. Jim DeMint, (R-S.C.); Gerald Seib, The Wall Street Journal;  Daniel Griswold, Cato Institute.

Who in Congress supports international trade and rejects market-distorting barriers and subsidies? In a comprehensive survey of votes in the 106th Congress, the Cato Institute names the 26 House members who voted most consistently against trade barriers, such as steel quotas and repealing normal trade relations with China, and against subsidies, such as those for the Export-Import Bank. Rep. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) will be present to explain why such members reject the pro-subsidy internationalism of the former Clinton administration and the anti-trade isolationism of Pat Buchanan.  Daniel Griswold, associate director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies and author of the new study, and Gerald Seib of the Wall Street Journal will comment.

February 20, 2001
What's Wrong with the Steel Industry--Again? ()

Featuring Thomas Danjczek, Steel Manufacturers Association; Charles Bradford, Steel Analyst; David Phelps, American Institute for International Steel.

For the second time in less than 3 years, the US steel industry is in crisis mode. By its own account, the industry is on the verge of extinction-a fate perpetuated by unfairly priced imports. The broad solution sought by steel industry officials includes import quotas, taxpayer-supported loan guarantees, and surcharges on steel shipments to fund legacy costs, ideas which have failed in the past. Other experts contend that a crisis is not at hand. Rather, a long overdue adjustment within the industry is beckoning, and further attempts to forestall this process pose the real threat to efficient producers and steel consumers alike. This dynamic has been deferred during the past several decades as government programs were established to prop up inefficient, outdated steel mills.

A transcript of the event (or in PDF, 57 pp, 92 kb)

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