In The News

Backing Down on Steel Tariffs, U.S. Strengthens Trade Group

David E. Sanger December 5, 2003
The fight over US steel tariffs, writes David Sanger in the New York Times, will go down in history as the case that defines the World Trade Organization's power. No case in the eight year history of the WTO has tested its power to quite the same degree, but now it has been tested – and won. Last week President Bush was forced to eliminate steel tariffs that the WTO ruled illegal after the...

A New Opportunity in Cancun's Failure

Balakrishnan Rajagopal December 3, 2003
The failure of September's global trade talks in Cancun may have indicated disagreement on a global level, but the unified voice of a small coalition of countries showed that smaller scale negotiations can be very effective. The emergence of the G-22 bloc of smaller countries, says development expert Balakrishnan Rajagopal, harkens back to the Bandung meeting of 29 formerly colonized...

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...

China Eases Foreign Entry into Bank Sector

James Kynge December 1, 2003
Chinese premier Wen Jiabao and Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), announced a loosening of regulations on foreign banks and finance companies on Monday. These changes are largely assumed to be a response to US and EU accusations that China engages in unfair trading practices, which violate their commitment to the WTO. Wen Jiabao is traveling to Washington...

China Wary as US Puts Lid on Textile Imports

Edward Alden November 20, 2003
The US can now import only limited quantities of brassieres, knit fabrics, and cotton dressing gowns from China – much to the relief of the US's domestic textile industry and to the ire of Chinese officials. Washington implemented the quotas in response to growing pressure from the US textile industry, which has lost 316,000 jobs in the past two years. Officials in the industry echo the...

Bilateral Pacts Also Goal for US

Jane Bussey November 19, 2003
Six Latin and South American countries – the Dominican Republic, Panama, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru – may enter bi-lateral trade agreements with the United States within the year, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick announced on Tuesday at the FTAA summit in Miami. This is a shift in strategy away from the original demands that Brazil and other reluctant states all fall in line...

U.K. Police, Protesters Await Bush

November 18, 2003
The British are planning to welcome U.S. President Bush’s visit with protests, intense security measures, and surprisingly extensive public support. While many British are taking Bush’s trip to the UK as an opportunity to express their discontent with the war in Iraq, recent polls suggest that more Britons welcome the visit than oppose it. Moreover, a majority – some 62 percent – says it...