Tariffs by Fiat: The Widening Chasm between U.S. Antidumping Policy and the Rule of Law
Constitutional scholars, lawyers, and policy analysts have long raised concerns about executive branch overreach on trade policy. The issue exploded into prominence in 2018 when President Trump authorized tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, which his Department of Commerce had identified as a national security threat under Section 232 of the Trade Act of 1962. But long before the row over Section 232, Commerce was routinely abusing the vast discretion afforded to it while administering antidumping law. In a new report, Cato scholar Daniel J. Ikenson argues that a new provision in antidumping law hastens its decades‐long transformation from a plausibly remedial tool into a convenient cover for brute‐force protectionism.
- “Tariffs by Fiat: The Widening Chasm between U.S. Antidumping Policy and the Rule of Law,” by Daniel J. Ikenson
The COVID Tonic
New from the Cato Institute, COVID Tonic is a podcast series featuring conversations between renowned scholars and the editor of HumanProgress.org, Marian L. Tupy. The interviews focus on the global impact of COVID-19 and the continued importance of rational optimism. Recent featured guests include Michael Shellenberger, Steven Pinker, and Deirdre McCloskey.
Testing the “China Shock”: Was Normalizing Trade with China a Mistake?
It is increasingly common for politicians and pundits in Washington to look upon China’s numerous recent offenses and point fingers not at Beijing but inward at a specific U.S. policy from 20 years ago: granting China “permanent normal trade relations” (PNTR) and the country’s subsequent entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). In a new paper, Cato scholar Scott Lincicome explains that the trendy caricature of a naïve U.S. government fueling the destruction of the American worker in the futile hope of Chinese democratization suffers from several flaws that collectively prove fatal for the anti‐engagement, anti‐PNTR thesis.
- “Testing the “China Shock”: Was Normalizing Trade with China a Mistake?,” by Scott Lincicome
- “Was Engagement with China a ‘Mistake’ that Demands a Radical Policy Rethink Today?,” by Scott Lincicome
Kicking the Habit: The Opioid Crisis and America’s Addiction to Prohibition
There is no single cause of America’s opioid crisis, but overprescription of opioids has undoubtedly contributed. The federal government has responded predictably, criminally prosecuting doctors who prescribe opioids to the drug dependent. The approach may seem sensible, but it is as wrongheaded as our century‐old drug war. In a new paper, Josh Bowers and Daniel Abrahamson examine the roots of the modern American drug war and offer their own public health prescription: a set of pragmatic harm‐reduction responses to prohibition and its counterproductive and often deadly effects.
- “Kicking the Habit: The Opioid Crisis and America’s Addiction to Prohibition,” by Josh Bowers and Daniel Abrahamson