By Victoria Hines

The U.S. Trade Representative said in a report that Chinese interest controls operate as a trade barrier. These controls block the public from accessing online materials by requiring Internet traffic to be filtered through state-controlled gateways. After the release of the Panama Papers, the Chinese government has blocked access to documents implicating political figures. The U.S. report did not specify whether they would take action in the WTO. Rather, the report focuses on the economic costs of Chinese censorship. Many Chinese web users also complain about the controls, stating that they adversely impact their ability to communicate with customers or business partners abroad.

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April 13, 2016

By Justin Kirschner

The “mother of all trade issues” will come to a head by the end of this year: is China a market economy under the WTO and who gets to make that decision? The answers to those questions have far-reaching economic and political ramifications.

Though the purpose of the WTO is to facilitate a reduction of trade barriers between its members, the WTO explicitly permits its members to levy anti-dumping duties. An anti-dumping duty is a temporary duty on imported goods imposed on a foreign firm when the foreign firm “dumps” products on the importing member’s market. A product is dumped when it is “introduced into the commerce of another country at less than its normal value” so as to cause or threaten to cause material injury to the domestic industry in the importing country. The consequent anti-dumping duty an importer may impose can be as high as the dumping margin, which is the difference between the actual price of the imported good and the normal value of the good. Generally, a product’s normal value is equal to the value of the product in the ordinary course of trade in the home market of the exporting country. 

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March 24, 2016

By Victoria Hines

Brexit, a reference to the possibility of Great Britain leaving the European Union (EU) upon a referendum, has recently been at the forefront of the news cycle.  The passage of the European Union Referendum Act of 2015, allowing for a referendum on whether the UK should remain in the EU, has ignited a debate on the desirability of continued EU membership. UK Prime Minister David Cameron conducted negotiations in Brussels last week to try to encourage European leaders to support his EU reforms before the projected June 23 referendum. These objectives, which Cameron outlined last November, included: acquiring insurance that the Eurozone countries are not able to manipulate financial regulations for non-euro nations, reducing red tape on European businesses, enhancing national parliament power by exempting Britain from an “ever closer union,” and controlling migration. This deal, which gives Britain “special status” in the EU, is now being used by Cameron to assemble support for the UK to remain in the EU.   

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March 11, 2016

By Victoria Hines

Several start-ups have recently emerged to compete with the online trade in fine wine. The market’s newest competitor, WineBourse, aims to be the “Charles Schwab” of the wine trade. Many U.S. companies, such as WineBid.com have selected a weekly auction model, resulting in a fine Rosé being auctioned off for almost $43k. Meanwhile, European competitors have rejected the auction approach in favor of a system that allows parties to select when to buy and sell. The cost of these services varies considerably between online sites; some companies, such as BBX, take legal ownership of the wine before selling it to the buyer.

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December 10, 2015

By Victoria Hines

On October 10, approximately 250,000 protestors took to the streets of Berlin to stress their opposition to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The TTIP is a free trade deal that is currently being negotiated between the U.S. and the European Union. The criticisms of this deal mirrors many complaints that have been made about the recently concluded Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal between the U.S. and Pacific Rim countries. Moreover, opponents warn that the TTIP could force public services, including the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS), to privatize. European anxieties regarding trade agreements are perhaps even greater than American fears since freer trade is bound to have a more radical effect on European services and values.

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October 23, 2015

By Victoria Hines

Congressman DeFazio urged Americans this week to drink craft beer in order to help deal with the U.S.’s trade deficit. He reasoned that by drinking beers produced by foreign-owned companies, Americans are contributing to the trade deficit, which has recently increased by 15.6 percent in August.  A trade deficit could potentially be detrimental to the U.S. economy if it increases the value of the U.S. dollar. However, DeFazio’s comment is somewhat misleading. Although some major brands, such as Miller, are foreign owned, they are still generally brewed and bottled stateside and thereby do not affect the trade deficit.

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October 22, 2015

By Victoria Hines

The Obama Administration took another step towards normalization between Cuba and the U.S. by releasing regulations authorizing American entrepreneurs to pursue arrangements with Cuban government owned companies. This policy announcement is representative of the administration’s larger scheme to depart from the 1960 U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, which poses an interesting dilemma for the U.S. cigar industry. Americans can now bring back $100 worth of Cuban cigars back to the U.S. But, will this policy adversely impact U.S. cigar companies? The U.S. cigar industry has recently suggested that they are not fearful of the influx of competition from their Cuban counterparts. Rather, they are convinced their superior quality will prevail over the mysticism Americans associate with the Cuban cigar.

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September 28, 2015