In The News

Kyoto's Not Dead Yet

December 3, 2003
A senior advisor to Russia's President Putin, Andrei Illarionov, declared this week that Russia was never going to sign on the Kyoto Protocol that aims to limit greenhouse gases. Fortunately for the treaty, Illarionov does not have the final word, and Putin himself has indicated that Russia would be willing to ratify. It seems likely that the Russians are hesitating on Kyoto out of the...

UN Calls for More Aid to Help North Korea Reform

Andrew Ward December 3, 2003
North Korea has seen much of its food aid disappear in the past year, presumably as donor nations aim to pressure Pyongyang to stop its nuclear weapons program. In the shift to a market economy, one million people were left without food, and analysts say that the politically-minded decision to cut off aid is starving the public. Without an increase in aid, North Koreans will be in dire straits...

Steel Tariffs Reported On Way Out

David Roeder December 2, 2003
President Bush is likely to avert a trade war by lifting the tariffs he imposed on imported steel in March of 2002. Bush originally established the duties to prevent the loss of steelworkers' jobs. However, keeping the tariffs would likely damage the economy far more by sparking a trade war with the European Union and Japan, both of whom threatened to retaliate by putting $2.3 billion...

Canada's View on Social Issues Is Opening Rifts With the U.S.

Clifford Krauss December 2, 2003
A long running joke among Americans has been that Canada will eventually become the 51st state, so alike are the attitudes and attributes of the two populations. In recent years, however, a chasm has grown between the neighbors with issues such as gay marriage, drug use, and church attendance revealing growing division on fundamental values. Canada has increasingly taken the progressive route,...

India Plans Free AIDS Therapy

Amy Waldman December 1, 2003
On the eve of an election day in India, the government announced plans to provide free antiretroviral therapy to H.I.V.-positive new parents and H.I.V.-positive children in the six states most affected by the disease. This is part of a larger initiative spearheaded domestically by Sushma Swaraj, India's Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, and internationally by organizations like...

Bull in a China Shop?

David Dapice December 1, 2003
As the election calendar heats up in the US, the Republican Bush administration and the Democrats' presidential hopefuls are all fingering China as the culprit behind America's economic woes. A rise in imports from China and a sharp decline in manufacturing jobs are the 'evidence' they point to, says economist David Dapice, but their theories simply don't hold water....

Bush Dropping Steel Tariffs to Avert Trade War

Mike Allen November 30, 2003
In response to a WTO ruling that was finalized three weeks ago, the Bush administration has indicated they are likely to drop the 8-30% steel tariffs imposed in 2002. The US faces a trade war with the European Union and Japan if it keeps the tariffs, which target imports from these nations as well as from South America. EU countries are threatening tariffs on products like Florida citrus fruits...