A G-7 Agenda for 2021

The G-7 Must Act With Unity for Growth and Freedom, with Jim Roberts, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #6093, June 10, 2021. "This year’s Group of Seven (G-7) summit of world leaders faces a series of vital and interlinked challenges. As the world seeks to recover from the devastating personal and economic effects of COVID-19, the democracies are equally seeking to regain the initiative from the world’s autocracies. From Russia’s aggressions in the Caucuses and Ukraine—and its murderous attack by poison in Salisbury, close to the route from London to St. Ives—to the much broader economic, security, and political challenge of China, the democracies are back on their heels, which is where they were when the G-7 first came together in 1973."

Santa Claus versus The Protectionists

'Twas No Trade Before Christmas, Newsday, December 17, 2017. "Now, BARRY! now, DONALD! now, SHERROD and BANNON!/On BERNIE! on TRUMKA! on WARREN and CLINTON!"

Germany's the Problem

Want A Good Ally? Then Be A Good Ally, Newsday, June 4, 2017. "Trump isn’t entirely in the right in this clash. But he’s more right than wrong. His idea that trade surpluses are always good and trade deficits are always bad is wrong. In the end, trade is an exchange of goods among individuals. If our government attempts to make it harder for us to buy what we want from abroad, it’s trying to tell individual Americans what we should do with our own money. That’s wrong."

A Very Charitable Post About President Obama

President Obama’s Many Missed Opportunities, Newsday, December 27, 2016, "Everyone makes mistakes, and the Obama administration has made its fair share. But harping on mistakes is easy. The tragedy of most presidential administrations rests not in the errors they make, but in the opportunities they miss — and in the belief that no one else can seize them."

Free Trade in People

, Newsday, November 19, 2016, "Around the world, globalization is supposedly under attack. From Brexit in Britain, to Donald Trump in the United States, we’re told we’re facing a rebellion against it. Yes, it’s a rebellion. But what’s driving it isn’t free trade in goods. It’s free trade in people."

Cheerful Conservatives in Birmingham

"The Conservatives Are Actually Happy in the United Kingdom," Weekly Standard, October 6, 2016, " in London by train from Gatwick Airport, you pass Battersea Power Station on your right. Derelict for more than 30 years, it is an iconic, vast, roofless, brick structure, with tall white smokestack towers. In the years since it last produced a watt of power, it has hosted raves, Dr. Who episodes, and James Bond movies. What it has not done is anything of enduring use. But this time, as I trundled past, there were modular apartments going up around the power station, and cranes working on the inside. The next day, the reason for the activity was announced: The power station, renovated and reconstructed at no small expense, is to be Apple's new U.K. headquarters, and a new center of retail and life besides. We were told that, after Brexit, no one would want to invest in Britain. Evidently someone forgot to tell Apple."

Right Goal, Wrong Way

"Is TTIP Dead? If It Is, Does It Matter?," Forbes, August 30, 2016, "Since 2013, the U.S. and the EU have been negotiating a trade deal, known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP. Over the weekend, Sigmar Gabriel, the leader of Germany’s Social Democratic Party, which is part of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s governing coalition, made waves by stating, during a question and answer session with citizens, that “In my opinion, the negotiations with the United States have de facto failed, even though nobody is really admitting it.”"

Losers, Winners, Free Trade, And America

Losers, Winners, Free Trade, And America, Forbes, July 1, 2016, "The 2016 campaign has forced me to face up to an uncomfortable truth–the United States isn’t nearly as friendly to free trade as I’d believed. The remaining candidates either waffle on it or condemn it. I don’t know who will win in 2016, but I do know who looks like losing: all of us."

Treating Energy As A Trade Commodity

The Economic and Geopolitical Benefits of Free Trade in Energy Resources, with Nicholas Loris, Luke Coffey, James Phillips, Dean Cheng, Ana Quintana, Lisa Curtis, and William Wilson, Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #3072, October 9, 2015. "America has an abundance of natural resources, including sufficient energy reserves to provide Americans with affordable and reliable energy well into the future. With its plentiful reserves of coal, natural gas, and oil, the United States is already a global leader in energy production and has the potential to be a major supplier to the rest of the world. As is the case for many other countries around the world, the United States benefits from free trade because of private property rights. Individuals, in large part, have owned and had the ability to produce America’s natural resources—which is a primary reason why the U.S. is a global energy leader. Individuals extract and sell the energy sources, and the market—not Washington, D.C.—should determine where it goes. Allowing U.S. energy exports would provide a huge boon to the American economy, creating jobs, expanding the economy, and strengthening relationships with global trading partners and important allies."

Against TTIP, Contra Mundum

TTIP Benefits Crony Capitalists, Not Free Enterprise, CapX, April 9, 2015. "The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is often described as a free trade agreement between the U.S. and the European Union. If that were true, it would deserve the support of everyone who believes that economic freedom is vital for growth, and offers our best defense against the power of vested interests. But TTIP is both far more and far less than a free trade agreement. Indeed, it’s testimony to the fact that, between the U.S. and the EU, the free trade agenda, as we have conceived of it since 1945, is dead."

Promoting the Obvious: Free Trade Between the US and the UK

Freedom from the EU: Why Britain and the U.S. Should Pursue a U.S.-U.K. Free Trade Area, with Nile Gardiner, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief, September 26, 2014. "A referendum on British membership in the European Union is scheduled for 2017. EU supporters argue that exit from the EU would hurt Britain’s economy and, in particular, its ability to negotiate trading arrangements with the rest of the world—a responsibility currently exercised by the EU on behalf of all of its member states. But there is every reason to believe that Britain, the world’s sixth-largest economy, would be able to negotiate trade agreements independently. If Britain does decide to leave the EU, one of its central priorities should be to negotiate a modern free trade area (FTA), based on sovereignty and freedom, with the United States. This is a goal that the U.S., which should abandon its policy of supporting the EU at the expense of the sovereignty of its member nations, should also champion."

The Faulty Geopolitical Case Behind TTIP

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP): The Geopolitical Reality, with Nile Gardiner and Luke Coffey, Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #2953, September 17, 2014. "The United States and the European Union are negotiating a trade agreement—the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)—that is being hailed as the answer to the woes of the transatlantic relationship, as a solution to the EU’s economic difficulties, and as heralding the creation of a new institution that will reinvigorate the Western alliance. It is essential that both the geopolitical concerns that motivate support for a TTIP and the limits of a TTIP’s ability to improve U.S.–EU relations and address the rise of China be properly understood."

The Economic Case for and Against TTIP

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP): Economic Benefits and Potential Risks, with Luke Coffey and Bryan Riley, Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #2952, September 17, 2014. "The United States and the European Union are negotiating a trade agreement—the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)—that politicians and commentators on both sides of the Atlantic hail as the answer to the woes of the transatlantic relationship, as a solution to the EU’s economic difficulties, and as heralding the creation of a new institution that will reinvigorate the Western alliance. But no U.S.–EU agreement can do all that has been claimed of the TTIP, and there are reasons to believe that its benefits have been oversold. The U.S. should support all measures that would promote growth and employment by increasing economic freedom, but it should not accept any agreement that could increase government regulation in the name of promoting free trade and create a transnational regulatory body that could infringe on U.S. sovereignty."

Grand Strategy, Political Economy, and Free Trade

The Limits of Free Trade, Newsday, April 18, 2014. "Since the Second World War, the United States has carried the banner of free trade. It’s not just a slogan: advancing economic freedom has been a central pillar of American grand strategy. But recently, the limits of that strategy have become clear."

On Brexit As Means, Not End

Can Britain Learn to Stand Up for Itself?, Yorkshire Post, March 22, 2014. "There is a sense in which complaining about the EU risks being an end in itself. It satisfies a deeply-held need in modern society: to have something to gripe about. And that actually suits the EU chorus just fine, because one reason politicians of all stripes love the EU is that it gives 
them an excuse for anything that goes wrong. Leaving the EU implies that Britain is going to commit itself to everything the EU dislikes: freedom, and preferring deeds to words. That approach will make Britain’s moribund foreign policy relevant again. But it is an approach that will take leadership and commitment, and planning that needs to start now."

How Must America Practice Diplomacy?

How Must America Practice Diplomacy?, Heritage Foundation, Understanding America Series, Essay Number Six, March 3, 2011. "The purpose of American diplomacy never changes: It is to secure the national interests of the United States. The fundamental American interest is to ensure that America remains independent and governed by the American people."

The EU and the Tapas Bar

Defense of the EU Lacks Substance, Heritage Foundation Foundry, June 14, 2010. "In the latest issue of the Economist, a correspondent – Dewi Williams, a senior lecturer in European law at Staffordshire University – writes in to complain about the unfairness of the British dislike of the European Union. Williams argues that the reason why the EU is unpopular in Britain is because the EU hasn’t done enough to promote itself, and the benefits of EU membership."

Does Free Trade Promote Democracy? Yes But.

Free Trade, But Not Only Free Trade, New Ledger, May 6, 2010. "Let me begin by agreeing, in part, with Greg Scoblete’s response on Real Clear World to my piece on humanitarian intervention and sovereignty in TNL last week. I’m happy to add freer trade to my list of ways that, depending on the circumstances, we may be able promote democratic change in foreign tyrannies or autocracies. Indeed, as I’ve pointed out elsewhere, a free and open economy is not just good at generating economic growth: it’s also a broader social and political good."

US-UK Defense Trade Cooperation Treaty

The U.S.-U.K. Defense Trade Cooperation Treaty Merits Early Consideration, Heritage Foundation WebMemo #2542, July 13, 2009. "The U.S.-U.K. Defense Trade Cooperation Treaty will permit the U.S. to trade most defense articles with Great Britain without an export license or other written authorization."

Why Banks Are Necessary

Re: Reality's Version of a Free Market, Contentions, May 16, 2009.