“International trade” on The Daily Caller

London (CNN) — Prince Andrew has said he will stand down as Britain’s “special representative” for international trade and investment, after 10 years in the role. (more)

That’s a political man-bites-dog headline. The issue being debated is the proposed U.S.-Korean Fair Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) — actually it’s a managed trade deal, detailed in over a thousand pages of fine print. The leviathan arrangement is filled with favors, exceptions, obligations, and restrictions and micro-manages commerce from cows to cars — sweetheart transactions for Wall Street elites and multi-national corporations. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — After two years of vociferous conflict over health care and financial regulations, President Barack Obama and the nation’s top business lobby — the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — have entered into something of a detente. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a rare concession on a highly sensitive issue, Chinese President Hu Jintao used his White House visit on Wednesday to acknowledge “a lot still needs to be done” to improve human rights in his nation accused of repressing its people. President Barack Obama pushed China to adopt fundamental freedoms but assured Hu the U.S. considers the communist nation a friend and vital economic partner. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hiring is anemic but corporate profits are up, and President Barack Obama is having 20 CEOs over to talk about how to tap that cash to boost jobs. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says the newly sealed free trade deal with South Korea is a big victory for American farmers and ranchers, the aerospace and electronics industries, and U.S. automakers. (more)

November has been one tough month for President Barack Obama. (more)

YOKOHAMA, Japan (AP) — President Barack Obama appealed to Asian leaders Saturday for greater access to fast-growing markets, proclaiming “the United States is here to stay” and saying its prosperity is tied inextricably to the success of its Pacific trading partners. (more)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A strong sense of pessimism shrouded the start of an economic summit of rich and emerging economies Thursday, with President Barack Obama and fellow world leaders arriving in Seoul sharply divided over currency and trade policies. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve’s plan to buy more Treasury bonds has incited critics at home to complain of inevitable high inflation and financial turmoil. (more)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Tensions over currencies and trade gaps are simmering ahead of a summit of global leaders this week as America’s move to flood its sluggish economy with $600 billion of cash triggers alarm in capitals from Berlin to Beijing. (more)

KYOTO, Japan (AP) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, meeting with counterparts from around the world Saturday, faces a tough task selling his formula for mending fissures in the global economy as nations seek ways to avoid another downturn. (more)

BEIJING—China’s government gave a muted response to the U.S. House of Representatives’ legislation targeting its currency practices, reflecting Beijing’s interest in minimizing a dispute that could threaten the $300 billion in annual trade flows between the two countries. (more)

The House voted 348 to 79 Wednesday to approve new penalties against countries that undervalue their currencies to gain an unfair trade advantage, the latest volley in a dispute that centers on China but risks a broader international battle over jobs and commerce. (more)

The hustle and bustle of life is hard enough with work, family, and finances without someone actively making it more difficult. So it’s unfortunate that new evidence suggests a small cabal of special interests is totally disregarding the public’s interest. (more)

The House Ways and Means Committee has just approved a bill that would attempt, albeit modestly, to crack down on Chinese currency manipulation, a key cause of America’s trade deficit.  The Ryan-Murphy currency bill (HR 2378) would allow the Commerce Department to treat currency manipulation as an illegal subsidy for the purpose of calculating countervailing duties intended as retaliation.  This bill has to be passed by the full House of Representatives and then the Senate before becoming law, but already the prophets of doom are squealing about the dangers of starting a trade war with China. They are wrong. (more)

The House Ways and Means Committee has finally approved a bill that would crack down on Chinese currency manipulation, a key cause of America’s trade deficit, by threatening China with retaliatory tariffs. Leaving aside the bogeyman of a trade war—which China is unlikely to start as the nation running the trade surplus and thus the nation having something to lose—this raises the obvious question of whether tariffs are a plausible long-term solution to America’s trade problems. What would happen, that is, if America reverted to its historical norm (from Independence to after WWII) of being a tariff-protected economy? (more)

One of the most inexcusable things about America’s ongoing economic decline by means of free trade is how clear the historical portents are. For example, we are today treading the same path trodden by a nation that Americans know reasonably well: Great Britain. It is easy to forget that until about 1850 Britain, not the U.S., was the world’s leading economic power. But then, of course, they blew it. Though there were many causes of Britain’s decline, free trade was undeniably a major one. (more)

College kids have an excuse for being indignant about free trade. They’re largely ignorant–young idealists who’re still learning about the real world. They don’t realize, for example, that most “sweatshop” jobs in Central America pay more than prevailing wages in those countries. And, while these jobs are tough, they are less horrible than subsistence agriculture. In other words, third-worlders actually want sweatshop jobs. The alternatives may be prostitution, starvation or crime. (more)

We skeptics of free trade are used to being told, “You don’t understand economics.”  In fact, one major reason I wrote the book Free Trade Doesn’t Work was simply to expose, once and for all, that there do exist extremely serious and intellectually reputable arguments, within the confines of accepted mainstream economics, which question free trade.  And indeed they exist. (more)