Trade Talks

Soumaya Keynes of The Economist and PIIE Senior Fellow Chad P. Bown discuss the evolution of the auto industry in North America. Long before the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the 1965 Canada-US Auto Pact, Mexican maquiladora program, OPEC-induced oil shocks, voluntary export restraints on Japan, and changing consumer preferences shaped the auto industry. NAFTA led to new cross-border supply chains and geographic clusterings in the American "auto alley" as well as in Mexico, affecting hundreds of thousands of North American jobs.

Soumaya Keynes of The Economist and PIIE Senior Fellow Chad P. Bown discuss the controversy surrounding the US washing machine market and update the solar panels case, in light of President Trump's decision to impose...

Keynes and Bown discuss the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), the program rich countries use to offer lower tariffs to exporters in developing countries. They discuss a variety of programs—the now expired US GSP scheme,...

Soumaya Keynes of The Economist and PIIE Senior Fellow Chad P. Bown discuss the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), the program rich countries use to offer lower tariffs to exporters in developing countries. They discuss a variety of programs—the now expired US GSP scheme, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), as well as differences with the European Union's GSP, GSP+ and Everything But Arms (EBA) policies. They speak with Emily Blanchard (Tuck School at Dartmouth College) and Kimberly Ann Elliott (Center for Global Development) about the design flaws of one-way trade preferences and research on their impact on developing countries.

Soumaya Keynes (The Economist) and PIIE Senior Fellow Chad P. Bown speak with Professor Meredith Crowley (University of Cambridge) about her Brexit research. Crowley describes results from her use of information on product-level UK exports...

PIIE Senior Fellow Chad P. Bown and Soumaya Keynes of The Economist focus on the December 2017 World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires. They describe the contentious negotiations over India's public stockholding...

PIIE Senior Fellow Chad P. Bown and Soumaya Keynes of The Economist focus on the December 2017 World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires. They describe the contentious negotiations over India's public stockholding program, fishing subsidies, and electronic commerce. They interview author Paul Blustein about his book "Misadventures of the Most Favored Nations: Clashing Egos, Inflated Ambitions, and the Great Shambles of the World Trade System," including the Battle in Seattle and the Doha Development Agenda. Finally, they discuss the hold-up problem facing WTO negotiations, as well as a potential path forward through plurilateral deals.

PIIE Senior Fellow Chad P. Bown and Soumaya Keynes of The Economist survey listeners and conduct interviews from the WTO ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires, to describe some of the more bizarre—and fascinating—barriers to international...

PIIE Senior Fellow Chad P. Bown and Soumaya Keynes of The Economist survey listeners and conduct interviews from the WTO ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires, to describe some of the more bizarre—and fascinating—barriers to international trade found in human history. They analyze the economics of policies applied in countries around the world that affect bicycles and skis, the Internet, video cassette recorders and pirated movies, as well as alcohol, chocolate, and tobacco.

Keynes and Bown focus on a huge WTO dispute in which China is suing the European Union and the United States over their refusal to treat it as a market economy, meaning they will not...