Obama Trade Policy: An Assessment at Six Months
AEI Program in International Economics

Six months into taking office, President Barack Obama has launched sweeping initiatives to stimulate the economy, reform health care, and curb global warming. On one subject--international trade policy--however, the administration has been largely silent, as AEI's Philip I. Levy and Claude Barfield discuss in the recently published International Economic Outlook, "In Search of an Obama Trade Policy."

Other than delivering stirring calls to avoid protectionism, the president and his new team of trade officials have given few clues regarding their intentions for the future of the World Trade Organization's Doha Round, the pending ratification of free trade agreements with Panama, Colombia, and Korea, or the charting of a new path for U.S. trade policy (a promise Obama trumpeted during the presidential campaign). At this event, a group of trade policy experts will assess the challenges facing the administration on trade policy and the Obama administration's options in this area going forward.

About the Author

 

Claude
Barfield
  • Claude Barfield, a former consultant to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, researches international trade policy (including trade policy in China and East Asia), the World Trade Organization (WTO), intellectual property, and science and technology policy. His many books include Free Trade, Sovereignty, Democracy: The Future of the World Trade Organization (AEI Press, 2001), in which he identifies challenges to the WTO and to the future of trade liberalization.
  • Phone: 2028625879
    Email: cbarfield@aei.org

 

Philip I.
Levy
  • Philip I. Levy's work in AEI's Program in International Economics ranges from free trade agreements and trade with China to antidumping policy. Prior to joining AEI, he worked on international economics issues as a member of the secretary of state's Policy Planning Staff. Mr. Levy also served as an economist for trade on the President's Council of Economic Advisers and taught economics at Yale University. He writes for AEI's International Economic Outlook series.

    Follow Philip Levy on Twitter


  • Phone: 202-862-5890
    Email: philip.levy@aei.org
  • Assistant Info

    Name: Chad Hill
    Phone: 202-862-5862
    Email: chad.hill@aei.org
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