In The News

Cows Can Fly While World's Poor Starve

Grace Sung October 3, 2002
European agricultural subsidy programs effectively give cows in the EU 1.40 euros per day to live on. Meanwhile, over 3 billion poor people around the globe struggle to survive on 1.3 euros each day. Combined with high tariffs on agricultural products to the EU, the massive subsidization of Europe’s largest farms puts farmers in developing countries at a competitive disadvantage. Despite...

Rich Nations Are Criticized for Enforcing Trade Barriers

Edmund L. Andrews September 30, 2002
The annual meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. provided critics an occasion to lambaste rich nations for their hypocrisy in preaching free trade while protecting their own farmers and workers. Is anybody listening? Farm subsidies and protection accorded to the textile industry, for instance, have a disproportionately large effect on poor countries...

Russian Oil ‘Can Ease Reliance on Mideast’

Nancy Dunne September 13, 2002
In an effort to decrease dependency on oil sources in the Mideast, US Senator Conrad Burns called for increased cooperation with Russian officials and oil companies. The senator hopes the development of Russian oil infrastructure will reduce the U.S.’s reliance on “rogue-oil” – an issue of particular sensitivity in light of President George Bush’s recent talk of war with Iraq. On October 1-2, the...

Bush Scales Back Steel Tariffs

Edmund L. Andrews August 23, 2002
American steel companies and their representatives in Congress called on President Bush to rescue their dying industry and increase steel tariffs this spring. He did so, infuriating the European Union, which then filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization, arguing that the U.S. was violating free trade rules. Bush has tried to satisfy both sides, discreetly excluding some steel...

War On ‘Blood’ Diamonds Ramped Up

Ursula Owre Masterson August 21, 2002
Civil war has ravaged countries like Sierra Leone and Angola for decades. These conflicts, as much about money as about politics, often center around one of the African continent’s most precious resources: diamonds. Rebel groups often sell the gems to developed countries and use the profits to fund their fighting. After years of benefiting from the cheaper stones, Western governments, led by...

A Step Forward

August 2, 2002
After a long period of intensive lobbying that spanned two administrations, President Bush won a key victory for his international trade platform when Congress granted him trade promotion authority. This authority means Congress must either accept or reject in full any international trade agreement the Bush administration proposes, rather than picking through it. But while this will certainly...

U.S. Defends Its Farm Subsidies Against Rising Foreign Criticism

Elizabeth Becker June 27, 2002
Thanks to record high US farm subsidies, American farmers can produce cheap crops that drive drown prices in foreign markets. Even though the US maintains that its farm subsidies are within WTO limits, countries around the world believe that the subsidies are contributing to the underdevelopment of agriculture-dependent African and Latin American economies. The US contends that it is trade...