Despite an increasingly difficult political terrain--including deep divisions between the two major parties over trade policy, as well as equally deep intra-party divisions with the Democratic Party--U.S. presidents and the U.S. executive have adopted remarkably unified goals.

Trade policy has become one of the important issues of the presidential campaign. Topics range from disagreements over outsourcing to calls for mandatory new labor and environmental standards. While President George W. Bush and his advisers proudly advertise their post-2001 accomplishments, Senator John Kerry has called for a moratorium on...

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.

While the U.S. economy becomes increasingly interconnected with the fate of the global market, trade policy still struggles to captivate the American public’s attention. Popular support for free trade is waning, and the presidential candidates are polarized in their approach to trade policy. What are the candidates’ positions on trade?...

The possibility of a grand bargain that would produce major trade liberalization in manufacturing, services and agriculture has steadily diminished and has now disappeared.

The recent failure of trade ministers to achieve a breakthrough on the difficult issues at the center of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Doha round is a major setback to the WTO and to the multilateral trading system. Several trade experts will convene at AEI to analyze the implications of...

In light of the academic challenge to the notion of competitiveness, AEI has gathered experts to research the value of the concept of competitiveness in different spheres. How do we define competitiveness, and is it worth pursuing as a policy goal? In what way do countries compete in various areas, including international trade, financial services and health care? 

A panel of leading experts will consider what to do with the ill-fated Doha Trade Round talks.