Recently released by the President of the United States on the Trade Agreements Programs, the 2001 Trade Policy Agenda and 2000 Annual Report outlines the trade agenda of the Bush Administration. According to the overview, President Bush "is strongly committed to a trade policy that will remove trade barriers in foreign markets, while further liberalizing our market at home." The main body of the...

After passing by a comfortable margin in the House, the bill to establish permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) with China may hit a bit of a rough patch in the US Senate, though eventual passage is all but assured. Opponents of PNTR with China from both the left and right have served notice that they intend to use delaying tactics in order to scrutinize the bill and introduce a number of...

American's love of imported goods, such as cars and computers, and the strong US economy have added to the US trade deficit at a rate that has surprised the Feds. Rising to a record $25.18 billion, the deficit has softened the dollar against foreign currencies and driven down the Dow Jones industrial average by 2.08 percent (or 225.43 points). In July, 1999, the trade deficit with Canada rose by...

The December 1999 issue of Industry, Trade, and Technology Review, from the USITC, contains in-depth reports about the air transport services and WTO trade negotiations.

"NAFTA's Positive Impact on the United States: A State-by-State Breakdown," by John Sweeney of the Heritage Foundation, attempts to examine the gains to individual states from NAFTA and concludes that most states have benefited. Recently, the debate over free trade has intensified in light of the failure of President Clinton to obtain fast-track authority from Congress. On September 17, 1997,...

Edited by Mary E. Burfisher and Elizabeth A. Jones, US Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service (described in the July 2, 1998 Scout Report for Business & Economics), the report Regional Trade Agreements and US Agriculture analyzes the "trade-creating" and "trade-diverting" impacts of US participation in regional trade agreements (RTAs). Twelve chapters cover the North American Free...

The USITC is an independent federal agency that provides trade advice to the government and examines instances of unfair trade practices. The web site offers useful information relating to international trade, including a monthly calendar of events, a listing of news releases, and notices of investigations into unfair trade practices. The USITC also publishes the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the...

The Washington Post Special on Free Trade contains articles on the debate over fast-track authority from Congress from the newspaper. Recently, the debate over free trade has intensified in light of the failure of President Clinton to obtain fast-track authority from Congress. On September 17, 1997, President Clinton went against the liberals in his own party to request fast-track authority from...