Trade Talks

Keynes and Bown talk with best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Bob Woodward about his latest book Fear: Trump in the White House. From snatching trade agreement withdrawal letters off the president’s desk to...

Keynes and Bown describe key elements of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, announced on October 1, 2018. Beneath the spin, they analyze what the deal really does, including where new market access has been...

Keynes and Bown speak with Bruce Stokes (Pew Research Center) about recent poll results on public attitudes toward trade. They discuss how Americans feel about trade and trade agreements, China, differences between self-identified Democrats and...

Keynes and Bown speak with Arvind Subramanian (PIIE, Harvard Kennedy School) about the massive changes in India’s trade policy since the 1980s. They examine the scope and impact of India’s trade liberalization; the importance of...

Keynes and Bown examine the legal arguments surrounding President Trump’s threats to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement and World Trade Organization. They speak with legal experts Gary Hufbauer (PIIE), Rachel Brewster (Duke...

Keynes and Bown examine critical economic issues caught up in Canada’s talks with the Trump administration over the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement. They speak with Meredith Lilly (Carleton University) and Madelaine...

Keynes and Bown examine the still murky details on autos and a potential sunset clause for the Mexico-United States trade agreement--which the Trump administration says is designed to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement...

Keynes and Bown have a conversation with Jason Furman (PIIE, Harvard Kennedy School)--a former senior economic adviser of the Obama administration--about American economic policy. They ask Furman about economic and trade policy during the Great...

Keynes and Bown explore the aluminum industry: how to make it, changes in North American production over the past few decades, and the industry’s real complaints. They discuss the Trump administration’s tariffs on imported aluminum...

Keynes and Bown describe how the Trump administration’s quotas imposed on steel imports from South Korea, Brazil, and Argentina are different from the simple application of tariffs. They speak with Ambassador Jennifer Hillman—former administrator of...

Keynes and Bown explain the US government decision to offer up to $12 billion of subsidies to farmers adversely affected by trade retaliation stemming from President Trump’s tariffs on steel, aluminum, and China. They speak...

Keynes and Bown detail an emerging approach for the European Union, Japan, China—and the Trump administration—to resolve the conflict over subsidies, one of the most pressing challenges confronting the World Trade Organization. They explain the...

Keynes and Bown compare President Donald Trump’s tariffs imposed to date—on solar panels, washing machines, steel, aluminum, and Chinese imports—with other major American protectionist episodes. They speak to economic historian Douglas A. Irwin (PIIE) about...

Keynes and Bown explain the outsized importance of “zeroing”—a technical, yet politically controversial method the United States uses to calculate antidumping tariffs. They speak to Thomas Prusa (Rutgers University) about zeroing’s contentious negotiating history, how...

Keynes and Bown explain recent developments in the UK-EU trade talks on Britain’s departure from the European Union. At the two-year mark after the June 23, 2016 Leave referendum, they speak to Anand Menon (King’s...

Keynes and Bown explain some implications of President Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on US imports from China starting July 6, 2018, which could escalate to cover $450 billion of American imports. They speak to...

Bown and Keynes explain the nonreciprocal pattern of tariffs—and nontariff barriers—across countries highlighted by President Trump’s tweets and statements about high levels of tariff protection received by Canadian dairy farmers, automakers in Europe and China,...

Keynes and Bown discuss a variety of Chinese perspectives of the Trump administration's trade policy.

Bown and Keynes explain the economic implications of President Trump’s decision to apply steel and aluminum trade restrictions on virtually all US trading partners as of June 1, 2018. Countries have announced their plans to...

Keynes and Bown talk with Kristin Dziczek (Center for Automotive Research) about President Trump’s new investigation into whether imports of autos threaten American national security. They discuss the implications of potential new tariffs for the NAFTA negotiations,...

Keynes and Bown discuss with Yuan Yang of the Financial Times how the US Commerce Department decision to sanction Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE—and its potential reversal by President Trump—affects the firm’s supply chain and Chinese and American...

Keynes and Bown talk with Professor Claudia Steinwender (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) about her research on the impact of the trans-Atlantic telegraph on trade. New information through the telegraph affected 1860s cotton price differences between...

Keynes and Bown discuss with Dave Donaldson (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) his research on how massive railroad projects—across America in the late 1800s and colonial India in the early 1900s—affected trade costs, market access, intranational...

Bown and Keynes explain controversial elements of the ongoing NAFTA negotiations that relate to jobs, wages, and workers. There are tradeoffs in the new proposals for automobile rules of origin, the enforcement of labor standards...

Bown and Keynes sit down with former acting deputy US Trade Representative Wendy Cutler to learn how to negotiate trade agreements. Wendy shares 25 years of experience balancing domestic politics, while driving hard bargains with...