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1. Foisting 19th century trade policy on our modern world is simply wrong

   Anyone trying to understand or explain the Trump administration’s international trade policy is often forced to conclude that his focus on trade deficits and domestic production is really an expression of mercantilism—a trade philosophy ...

2. Economists almost unanimous—rising trade barriers not good

   Trade with China may actually have increased manufacturing employment in the United States. ...

3. Trump administration summons ‘national security’ to justify tariffs

   The Trump administration has justified its tariffs on U.S. imports of steel and aluminum from Canada (and several other countries) on grounds of national security. Under U.S. law, specifically Section 232 of the Trade Adjustment Act of ...

4. In the evolving trade debacle with the U.S, Ottawa must act

   The outlook for ongoing NAFTA negotiations grows dimmer by the day, notwithstanding the conciliatory statement by Mexico’s new president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (known colloquially as AMLO). In a recent interview after exit polling ...

5. Canada, Trump and tariffs—a counterproductive and self-defeating quarrel

   President Trump’s recent actions have drawn widespread media attention to tariffs. Economic science provides an effective means of discerning the implications amid the hyperbole and rhetoric. Earlier this year, the Trump administration ...

6. The end of Trump-whispering

   I wrote in January about how economists, apart from warning about the consequences, don’t have an awful lot to say about how best to fight a trade war. Adam Smith himself wrote that such wars were a situation in which policy be left to ...

7. Your trade war is my export opportunity

   Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is renowned for saying “your margin is my opportunity.” Canada and other countries may soon be in position to paraphrase Bezos’ iconic boast as an emerging trade war involving the United States and China creates ...

8. All our trade doors look unattractive now

   I’ve been reading a new paper by Oxford economic historian Kevin O’Rourke called Two Great Trade Collapses: The Interwar Period & Great Recession Compared, a title that, unlike many academic titles, pretty much catches what the paper ...

9. Global free trade, an essential element of economic freedom, is under threat

   China throws up barriers to international competition and assaults foreign investment. ...