The Napoleonic Blockade offered an opportunity for economists to see whether temporary protection from imports can help industrial development. Réka Juhász (Columbia University) joins to discuss her research into whether French regions better p

Trade Talks Episode 119: Stock Markets, the Economy, and Trump’s Trade Policy Uncertainty

Jan 27th, 2020

Nick Bloom (Stanford University) joins to discuss the increase in trade policy uncertainty under President Trump and implications for investment and economic growth. They describe new ways of measuring policy uncertainty – including the Economi

Trade Talks Episode 118: Ins and Outs of the US-China Phase-One Trade Deal

Jan 21st, 2020

Two former USTR negotiators join to explain the details of the new US-China trade agreement. Agriculture negotiator Darci Vetter (Edelman, 3:50) describes China’s new commitments toward US farm products, and foreign investment negotiator Lauren

Trade Talks Episode 117: Trump's Import Tariffs Have Hurt US Exports

Jan 9th, 2020

New evidence reveals a side effect of President Trump’s import tariffs. The research shows that, through US supply chain linkages, the new US tariffs on imported inputs are directly contributing to the recent slowdown in US exports of outputs.

Trade Talks Episode 116: Fish Subsidies. What’s the Catch?

Dec 30th, 2019

The WTO is failing to meet a 2020 deadline set by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals to negotiate limits to fisheries subsidies. To figure out why, we went to Geneva and spoke with Alice Tipping (International Institute for Sustainable Deve

Trade Talks Episode 115: The Trade War and US Elections

Dec 20th, 2019

Republicans lost 40 seats in the 2018 elections for the US House of Representatives. Emily Blanchard (Tuck School of Business) joins to discuss new research that investigates how Trump’s trade war affected the 2018 election. The evidence sugges

Trade Talks Episode 114: US and China Announce a Phase-One Deal

Dec 16th, 2019

Trump’s US Trade Representative provides a fact sheet and more detail on the first stage of the deal announced December 13 to address the administration’s trade war with China. The fact sheet previews an eventual 86-page legal agreement that wo

Trade Talks Episode 113: How and Why Congressional Democrats Tweaked the USMCA

Dec 14th, 2019

USMCA gets one step closer after Congressional Democrats, organized labor, the Trump administration, and Mexico strike a deal. Megan Cassella (Politico, 2:18) explains how the four-way negotiations led to the December 10 announcement of additio

Trade Talks 112: Forensic Subsidies Detectives and Trade Disputes

Dec 9th, 2019

Government subsidies are a key battle area in today’s trade disputes between countries, including the US and China. But finding and measuring those subsidies is increasingly hard. Ken Ash uses the aluminum sector to describe the OECD’s new appr

Trade Talks 111: Trade Policy Under Trump

Nov 25th, 2019

Stephen Vaughn, formerly the Trump administration’s USTR General Counsel, joins in a wide-ranging conversation about the Trump administration’s trade policy. They discuss critiques of the pre-Trump approach (3:04), as well as Trump’s approach o

Trade Talks 110: Will 3D Printing Increase Trade? Hear All About It

Nov 12th, 2019

Companies can now "print" some products locally, obviating the need for trade. But for hearing aids, the economic shakeup has turned out different thus far. Caroline Freund and Michele Ruta (World Bank) join to discuss their new research examin

Trade Talks 109: A Different US-China Fight Hits the Headlines

Nov 5th, 2019

The WTO authorizes China to retaliate against US exports. The timing bodes poorly for an Appellate Body already under stress. They discuss how the US has failed to fix its antidumping and the “single rate presumption” issue in this dispute, as

Trade Talks 107: Making Services Trade Great

Nov 1st, 2019

Services trade gets no respect. The release of the WTO’s World Trade Report 2019 gave us a chance to fix that. Roberta Piermartini and Stela Rubinova (World Trade Organization) as well as Alan Beattie (Financial Times) join to provide insights

Trade Talks 107: Bombed Embassies and Document Leaks – How China Got into the WTO

Oct 24th, 2019

Paul Blustein (Centre for International Governance Innovation) joins to discuss the contentious process of US-China negotiations in the late 1990s that ultimately resulted in China joining the World Trade Organization. Their discussion of his l

Trade Talks 106: Trump's Mini-Deal with China

Oct 15th, 2019

Jenny Leonard (Bloomberg News) joins to update what is known about President Trump’s October 11 announcement of a potential deal to address his ongoing trade war with China. Their wide-ranging conversation covers Beijing’s take on these develop

Trade Talks 105: Aircraft Subsidy Disputes: How These Tariffs Are Different

Oct 7th, 2019

The World Trade Organization authorizes new US retaliatory tariffs on EU imports in one of its biggest and longest-running formal disputes in history. Former WTO Appellate Member Jennifer Hillman (Council on Foreign Relations) joins to explain

favoriteshare flag audioTrade Talks Episode 104: How to Hit Currency Manipulators and Fight the Strong Dollar

Sep 30th, 2019

A strengthening dollar reignites a recurring debate about how to hit back against countries that deliberately weaken the value of their currencies. Joseph Gagnon (PIIE) and Maury Obstfeld (PIIE, Berkeley) join to discuss two recent and controve

Trade Talks Episode 103: US-China Trade War from the Trenches

Sep 24th, 2019

Erin Ennis and Jake Parker (US-China Business Council) join to explain results from the USCBC’s annual survey of its members of American companies doing business in China. They describe the original purpose and nearly 20-year history of the sur

Trade Talks Episode 102: Is Trump Beating the Chinese Economy?

Sep 17th, 2019

Nicholas Lardy joins to provide an update on Chinese economic performance over the year since the summer 2018 outset of the trade war. They assess a number of President Trump’s recent statements by examining data on China’s economic growth, exp

Trade Talks Episode 101: Huawei, National Security, and the Trade War

Sep 16th, 2019

Yuan Yang (Financial Times) joins to explain the allegations and complications surrounding Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei. They discuss alleged risks to national security, IP theft, unfair trade, sanctions violations, export controls, t

Trade Talks Episode 100: Sneaking Up on a No-Deal Brexit

Sep 11th, 2019

Anand Menon (The UK in a Changing Europe) joins Keynes and Bown to provide an update on political developments, as well as the shifting timeline, for Britain to depart from the European Union with or without a trade agreement. They also discuss

Trade Talks Episode 99: The Surprising Story of the US Trade Deficit with South Korea

Sep 6th, 2019

Kadee Russ (University of California Davis) joins Keynes and Bown to discuss her research on why Korea’s trade surplus grew so widely after the Korea-US (KORUS) Free Trade Agreement went into effect in 2012. They explain the role of trade diver

Trade Talks Episode 98: What's Wrong with Germany's Trade Surplus?

Aug 28th, 2019

Jeromin Zettelmeyer (Peterson Institute for International Economics) joins Keynes and Bown to explain the growth of Germany’s trade and current account surplus, and the puzzle behind why it has not gone away. They discuss the role of the Europe

Trade Talks Episode 97: Watching China's Human Rights

Aug 22nd, 2019

Sophie Richardson (Human Rights Watch) joins Keynes and Bown in a wide-ranging conversation about human rights in China. They begin with basic human rights before turning to recent Chinese government efforts to surveil, detain and politically r

Trade Talks Episode 96: Trump's Next China Tariffs and Fears in the Global Economy

Aug 16th, 2019

Keynes and Bown discuss the Trump administration’s announcement to impose new tariffs totaling $300 billion of Chinese imports split across September 1 and December 15, 2019. Each tariff list targets a different set of consumer goods for the fi