Regulation begets rent-seeking. When government assumes the power to regulate imports, domestic firms will lobby to use that fact to their advantage.

Case in point: Home Products International (HPI), an American company, makes ironing tables. So does Hardware, a Chinese company. I personally have no idea which firm makes the better ironing table. That’s for consumers to decide.

Or at least it should be for consumers to decide. But it doesn’t always work that way in practice. HPI seems to have already…

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Leading trade lawyer Gary Horlick testified yesterday on carbon tariffs before the Senate Finance Committee.  As the Senate prepares an energy suppression/global warming bill, it is attempting to find ways to soften the “border adjustment” provisions in the House-passed bill (H.R. 2454).

Horlick points out some of the practical problems of setting up a carbon tariff system and cautions about the potential effects of such measures on the international trading system.  As he notes, if the production method rather than the end-product…

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It’s timely and needed — a new publication gives leading trade economists’ views on “What world leaders must do to halt the spread of protectionism.” In the publication by VoxEU.org (run by The Centre for Economic Policy Research), all of the experts caution that in times of recession, countries often attempt to fend off competition by trade protectionism; to do so, however, would be a huge mistake and plunge the global economy further downward, particularly hurting developing countries.

Instead, these experts argue, deal…

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When was the last time the U.S.’s top trade official wasn’t a strong advocate for free trade? It may happen in the new Obama Administration.

According to numerous news reports, President-elect Obama has offered the post of USTR to Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), a 16-year member of the House, who serves on the powerful Ways and Means Committee that oversees trade and is a close ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi — his website lists him as “Assistant to the Speaker.”

Becerra’s record on…

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