Free Republic

Many U.S. manufacturers are shrugging off concerns over tariffs and trade tensions as strong demand at home and abroad is yielding stronger-than-expected profits.

Outrage is growing on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean following a massive new leak of the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a globalist “trade” agreement negotiated between the Obama administration and the European Union. The leaked documents are being used, properly in some cases, to portray the treaty as a giant handout to Big Business cronies. Just as importantly, the almost 250 pages of text also confirm once again that the controversial new “trade” regime aims to merge the regulatory regimes of the United States and the EU under unaccountable transnational institutions. In short, the threats to...

Donald Trump and his fellow liberals Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are lambasting free trade as the scourge of the American working man. How odd it is that an economic activity so beneficial to almost every American, indeed to the vast majority of the human race, suffers such attacks with only half-hearted defenses raised by politicians who should know better and economists who do know better. I stipulate: in trade, as in any economic endeavor, there are losers in the short run. Capitalism is, after all, fundamentally a system of creative destruction. But if there is any area of agreement...

Free trade is again under attack, despite having been, for over a century, the basis of America's wealth. Some groups in the United States blame free trade for the loss of manufacturing jobs, while others blame it for exposing some U.S. producers to foreign competition. Free trade, however, is good for America, and for a very simple reason: It allows American workers to specialize in goods and services that they produce more efficiently than the rest of the world and then to exchange them for goods and services that other countries produce at higher quality and lower cost. Specialization and...

Donald Trump said Sunday that there's one issue on which he and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) agree: trade. In a CNN interview Sunday, Trump pointed out that he and Sanders both opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the multinational trade agreement brokered by the Obama administration. The deal aims to reduce tariffs and put legal standards in place in the 12 participating countries. "The one thing we very much agree on is trade. We both agree that we are getting ripped off by China, by Japan, by Mexico, everyone we do business with," Trump said. But though the mogul suggested that he...

This week, Congress has a historic opportunity to unite behind an issue that will create jobs, raise wages and solidify the U.S. as the leader in the 21st century economy. On Friday, the House is expected to vote on a bill known as trade promotion authority, or TPA. This legislation would empower Congress to dictate the terms of free trade agreements and ensure the U.S. secures the best trade deal possible for American workers, manufacturers, farmers and ranchers. This issue shares broad bipartisan support ranging from Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Congressman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and President Obama. Its passage is...

Sets deadline of October 1, 2010 for Administration to act(Washington, D.C.) –U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) included language in the Fiscal Year 2011 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations bill that calls on the Administration to put forward a plan that would end retaliatory tariffs on Washington state agricultural products by October 1, 2010. The bill passed the THUD subcommittee, which Murray chairs, as well as the full Appropriations committee, and will now head to the full Senate for consideration. “I am extremely frustrated that the Administration has not yet acted while farmers across my home state of Washington...

Beijing - China formally ordered an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy probe into imports of US poultry on Sunday, according to the Ministry of Commerce. The investigation came in response to a petition received by the China Animal Husbandry Association on behalf of the domestic poultry industry, the ministry said in a statement on its website. China first announced it would launch an anti-dumping probe into US poultry exports and automobile parts, just days after US President Barack Obama announced new tariffs on US imports of Chinese-made tyres on September 11. Preceding the G20 summit earlier this week, Chinese President Hu Jintao...

The gilded world of Wall Street may lose up to 60,000 jobs in just five years unless cumbersome government regulations are dumped and replaced by looser European-style ones, according to a sweeping new study. Mayor Bloomberg and Sen. Chuck Schumer were set today to unveil the bleak report, which warns that the city could lose as much as $25 billion in cash flows that Wall Street now generate unless their blueprint for revising securities regulations is heeded. Among the changes proposed: Setting up a new congressional panel to oversee financial services; cutting Homeland Security red tape to make it easier...