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Open Think Tank Articles
Tobias Fella: Competing regulatory rules and policies pose a major challenge to transatlantic relations and to the further development of the multilateral trade order. The EU and US must institutionalize a framework, which supports enhanced liberalization, thus preventing the development of competing regionalism.
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Atlantik-Brücke’s Young Leaders: The Atlantic partners must jointly address the economic slowdown, competition over scarce resources and energy dependence. Moreover, the transatlantic relationship faces an immediate, critical test in Afghanistan. Success there is needed as a demonstration of our ability to effectively address common security threats.
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David Neil Lebhar: While the race between Obama and McCain is too close to call, US voters and the world must realize that the two candidates’ foreign policy positions are not especially different. Furthermore, due to economic instability, domestic concerns, and a shifting geo-political balance, the next president will have to react to international issues through re-defined multilateralism.
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Peter H. Schuck: As in de Tocqueville’s time, American culture, politics, and economics stand apart from the rest of the world. Examining American institutions, public policies and cultural patterns would help the world understand America’s exceptionalism compared to other liberal democracies.
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Maria Rankka: I urge Europe to look beyond Sweden’s mythic welfare state and learn from the country’s history of free trade and free enterprise. Protectionism and social safety nets will not forestall the wave of competition from globalization.
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Global Must Read Articles
Public support in the US for open trade has fallen. ++ One of the causes for this drop is that politicians make unconvincing mercantilist arguments for free trade: we open our markets so they open theirs. ++ This kind of free trade mercantilism dominates American rhetoric, in which the focus is on ‘fair trade’. ++ Most economists think nations should lower their trade barriers to promote
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There has never been a better opportunity for the US and EU to strike a free trade deal. ++ There is unparalleled backing for such an agreement. ++ Washington and Brussels have created a High Level Working Group to find ways to strengthen their economic relations. ++ Merkel and Cameron have called for a EU-US free trade pact. ++ Business groups on both sides of the Atlantic support the idea. ++
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The European Commission’s recent proposal on public procurement risks a 1930s-style protectionist war. ++ The proposal would allow the EU to close public-procurement markets to countries that exclude European companies from their public contracts. ++ Even bidders with a large European content could be excluded from the process. ++ This means the proposal could harm not only external bidders but
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When new Arab leaders in Egypt and Tunisia take office, they ought to learn from Russia’s corruption-plagued transition from the USSR. ++ They can avoid a similar fate by initiating the transparent privatization of state economic property, the modernization of commercial laws, and the opening of nearly every sector to foreign investment. ++ The economic and political vitality of the Arab
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Clearing insurgents is only the first step in ridding Afghanistan and Pakistan of terrorism. ++ If economic opportunities are not made available, local populations will continue to turn to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. ++ The current congressional bill on Reconstruction Opportunity Zones, which would reduce the U.S. tariff on textile exports from the two countries, must overcome disagreements over
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The US must improve its relationship with Russia as well as supporting the fledgling democracies on its border. ++ Introducing a free-trade agreement with Georgia is a good first step and will not hurt Washington-Moscow relations. ++ Georgia needs help to weather the economic crisis and its best bet is through increased trade and investment. ++ Trade talks would provide impetus for economic and
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In the upcoming lame duck session of Congress, Bush and Obama should insist to vote on the outstanding free trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea and Panama. ++ The election put these pacts on the back burner, but the sooner deals are made to beat out competition from Canada and the EU, the more it will benefit US manufacturing. ++ US geopolitics in the “war on drugs” and
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Food security is increasingly an issue in many parts of the developing world. ++ In countries that are net importers of food, e.g. Egypt or the Philippines, soaring prices lead to economic and political crises. ++ To help solve the problem the EU should increase its output: abandon restraints on production, review plans to switch land from food to biofuels, and increase expenditure on food
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This week the WTO gathers trade ministers to try and salvage the Doha round. ++ Decisions are tough and stakes are high: whereas success would boost the global economy and be “a historic achievement for multilateral diplomacy,” stalemate would be a dangerous setback. ++ If failure is attributed to the WTO’s lack of leadership and overambitious membership and agenda, the institution’s future
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Foreign direct investment is slowing down worldwide due to nations’ fears of losing control of what they call “critical infrastructure.” ++ Markets have recently experienced FDI coming from non-traditional sources such as China and the Middle East, spurring governments to implement market-disrupting controls. ++ This is unnecessary. ++ Protectionist restrictions harm source and receiving
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Surprisingly, it is some of the fastest developing countries such as China and India, that are slowing down the Doha development talks. ++ Protectionism in one country triggers a chain reaction that blocks free trade in several sectors across the globe. ++ The losers are those for whom Doha was conceptualized: farmers and small businesses in slowly developing countries. ++ Opening up the
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US President George W. Bush’s final visit to Europe is likely to be only ceremonial and of little real substance. ++ The EU and the US are deeply divided over issues of trade, especially the import ban on American poultry. ++ Meanwhile, Bush - who’s presidency is soon to end - has too little leverage to elicit European cooperation on such issues as Afghanistan and Iraq. ++ The question remains
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Why do free trade promoters believe they can convince the “Joe Sixpacks” of the world that temporary, however painful, economic adjustments will lead to overall gain? ++ This argument requires a trustworthy system of redistribution, which the US lacks. ++ Convincing today’s losers that tomorrow’s winners will be numerically greater enters philosophical territory, perhaps
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Since they help increase productivity and develop economic potential, efficient services are fundamental to modern economies. ++ Because the service sector is expanding rapidly and contributing to sustainable growth, liberalization could boost the world economy by $1 trillion. ++ Australia and the US will thus not support the WTO’s Doha package unless it includes commitments to loosen constraints
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Confronting some of the protectionist calls during the ongoing presidential nomination process, Steven E. Landsburg, a professor of economics at the University of Rochester, reminds us of the huge benefits of free trade we benefit from everyday.
Thus, even when some jobs are outsourced, the fall in wages is more than offset by the gains through lower prices. Essentially, company managers, by
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If Japan intends to preserve its status in world trade, it must negotiate an economic partnership agreement with its biggest trading partner, the US, warns journalist Kiroku Hanai. Japan already lags behind South Korea and China in completing bilateral trade agreements and has recently shied away from free trade because of its weak agricultural sector, preferring instead multilateral negotiations
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A Transatlantic Free Trade Area (TAFTA) could provide new momentum for the transatlantic relationship, reports Mirela Isic of the Center for Applied Policy Research in Munich. An alliance that handles one third of world trade and produces more than 40% of world GDP would be a good safeguard against variations in the world economy such as those caused by integrating India and China into the world
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