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ALTHOUGH the US, the world’s leading carbon polluter, remains outside the Kyoto Protocol, its hand could well be forced in the not too distant future. Having declined to ratify Kyoto, the US is not obliged to meet the emission reduction targets the protocol lays down, ostensibly on the grounds that it would hurt the US economy. By staying out, the US could gain significant economic advantage over its industrialised counterparts that are party to the protocol as they will, in the short term, incur major implementation costs. Not surprisingly, these countries are so peeved that they may turn to the...

"If Canada and the U.S., as close as they are, can't have an agreement that is respected, what does that say about the future of the rules-based international trading system?" That's the question posed to us by Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin yesterday at the Journal's New York office almost as soon as he sat down. Mr. Martin was in town to speak to the Economic Club of New York. At the top of his list of priorities to put on the record, he told us, is Canada's deep dissatisfaction with the U.S. refusal to comply with multiple rulings that...

Homeowners and home buyers scored a rare... victory... when a three-person arbitration panel ruled unanimously that U.S. tariffs against imported Canadian softwood lumber violate the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta).... [R]escinding the tariffs will reduce the average construction cost of a new home by about $1,000 and make about 300,000 more moderate-income Americans eligible for mortgages. Instead of hailing the move as a welcome step toward more affordable housing, the Bush administration insists that it won't lift the tariffs, which can reach as high as 27%. It further plans to engage in more stalling tactics by appealing the decision...

EU defeat in banana export battle "Banana wars" have been rumbling on since the 1990s A new European Union tariff on imported bananas has been declared illegal by the World Trade Organization (WTO).The WTO backed a claim brought by Latin American countries, who argued the EU tariff would have a "devastating effect" on their economies and exports. Under a EU system set for launch in January 2006, imports faced a tariff of 230 euros ($280.30; £158.50) a tonne. The new tariff had aimed to safeguard exports from countries in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group. Most were former...

...Mr. Bush said the U.S. would "absolutely" drop its system of farm subsidies if the European Union eliminated its $40 billion a year Common Agricultural Policy. Now, that's a radical idea. It certainly trumps the calls by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and others to double official development aid to sub-Saharan Africa or to forgive more debt. Getting rid of U.S. and EU farm subsidies -- and the protectionism they entail -- would do far more to address what liberals like to call a "root cause" of poverty. Too many African exports, particularly farm commodities, are kept out of Western...

EDITOR'S NOTE - The steel industry has both spread out and trimmed down. Of the top 10 steelmakers today, only two are American. The footprints of this evolution can be seen in profits, labor contracts, former steel towns and the bottom line of steel consumers. This story is the sixth of a six-part series on the globalization of the industry.MONROEVILLE, Pa. (AP) - There are no belching smokestacks here. No monstrous mills churning out tons of steel. But in the labs on a sprawling, tree-lined, college-like site in this Pittsburgh suburb, steel work is most definitely being done. About 130...

...The U.S. expansion has been strong and steady despite the warnings of fragility, the repeated claims of a slowdown, and the fear of China (as intense as the Japan fears of the 1980s). U.S. growth has averaged a fast 3.9% pace since the initial 7.4% tax-cut-related growth celebration in the third quarter of 2003. Thanks in large part to smaller businesses, U.S. unemployment has fallen to 5.1%, with wage and salary income growing at a 10% annual rate in the revised fourth-quarter data. Beyond housing, household liquid assets have increased more than both total debt and foreign debt, helping build...

NABEREZHNYE CHELNY, May 11 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko has proposed fixing prohibitive import duties on foreign cars beginning from five instead of the present seven years of age. He said this when visiting the AvtoVAZ factory (Russia's leading carmaker). The Russian automobile market is promising and expanding, he said. "Recalling the last year estimates, it is 17 billion dollars as regards only cars. This year it is 20 billion dollars. In 2010 the Russian car market will increase to 31 billion dollars," Khristenko said. His working visit to the KAMAZ factory is pegged to...

EU to China: Cut textiles exports or face curbs JOHN CHALMERS Posted online: Tuesday, April 26, 2005 at 0126 hours IST BRUSSELS, APRIL 25: The European Union (EU) urged China on Sunday to cut its textile exports or face formal curbs on products such as T-shirts and trousers, which have leapt in some cases by more than 500 per cent since the end of a global quota system. ‘‘Europe cannot stand by and simply watch these developments unfold. The time has come to take further action,’’ EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said, announcing plans for a probe into nine categories...

Grouped By Vote Position YEAs ---33 Alexander (R-TN) Allard (R-CO) Baucus (D-MT) Bennett (R-UT) Bond (R-MO) Brownback (R-KS) Burns (R-MT) Cantwell (D-WA) Carper (D-DE) Chafee (R-RI) Cochran (R-MS) Coleman (R-MN) Collins (R-ME) DeMint (R-SC) Ensign (R-NV) Feinstein (D-CA) Frist (R-TN) Grassley (R-IA) Gregg (R-NH) Hagel (R-NE) Kyl (R-AZ) Lott (R-MS) Lugar (R-IN) McCain (R-AZ) McConnell (R-KY) Murkowski (R-AK) Murray (D-WA) Nelson (D-NE) Roberts (R-KS) Smith (R-OR) Stevens (R-AK) Sununu (R-NH) Wyden (D-OR) NAYs ---67 Akaka (D-HI) Allen (R-VA) Bayh (D-IN) Biden (D-DE) Bingaman (D-NM) Boxer (D-CA) Bunning (R-KY) Burr (R-NC) Byrd (D-WV) Chambliss (R-GA) Clinton (D-NY) Coburn (R-OK) Conrad (D-ND)...

MOSCOW — Toyota, Russia's economic development and trade ministry and St. Petersburg's administration are planning to sign a memorandum on building Toyota's assembly plant near St. Petersburg next week, Svetlana Ganeyeva, chief of the economic development and trade ministry's investment department, has told reporters today. Ganeyeva did not give the exact amount of Toyota's investments but noted that it was a matter of hundreds of millions of dollars. The project will officially be opened on April 26, 2005, she said. An investment agreement for this project will be signed later. It is planned that the plant will make 25,000 automobiles...

These are not the halcyon days of the Republicans' champion of open borders and free trade, Jack Kemp. The "Minutemen," who appeared in Cochise County, Ariz., April 1 to highlight the invasion President Bush will not halt, are being hailed by conservative media and congressmen as patriots, as they are dismissed by the president as "irrational vigilantes." Comes now the trade shocker for February. The deficit hit an all-time monthly record: $61 billion. The annual U.S. trade deficit is now running at $717 billion, $100 billion above the 2004 record. Smelling political capital, Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer are co-sponsoring...

If American consumers and taxpayers have learned any lesson over the past number of years it’s that sugar producers don’t like competition. In fact, they loathe it. Always have. Since 1820, when Louisiana sugar planters successfully argued for high tariffs to prevent a collapse in the value of slaves, the industry has used political influence to fleece consumers and taxpayers and avoid competition. In the last two centuries, no other industry has better used its deep pockets and political clout to restrain trade and competition. American consumers have been victimized by this racket. In 2004, government price controls through trade-quota...

There is a disturbing trend under way in Washington these days where politicians threaten Draconian action as a "stick" to coerce a result they desire. They do this even while they acknowledge that swinging the stick won't solve the problem it purports to address and most likely will exacerbate it and lead to undesirable consequences. They typically justify their use of provocative and extreme threats as the only means available to rectify a situation they characterize as a pending "crisis" or a "systemic meltdown." The most recent instance that comes to mind immediately is levying huge protectionist tariffs on selected...

HANNOVER, Germany Germany and Russia announced agreement Monday to build a North European Gas Pipeline under the Baltic Sea that will allow Russia's energy giant Gazprom to deliver gas directly to Western Europe and sharply reduce its dependence on its traditional transit routes through Ukraine and Belarus. The announcement of the agreement, which will give Gazprom a larger foothold in Europe's energy sector, was made by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany and President Vladimir Putin of Russia in Hannover at the opening of one of the world's largest international trade fairs

Friday 8th April, 2005 China to face U.S. tariffs unless it devalues currency Big News Network.com Friday 8th April, 2005 Anger over the ballooning trade deficit with China appears to be pushing the U.S. Senate toward passage of an overtly protective tariff. An apparently increasing number of senators, significantly including Republicans, now see Beijing's suppression of its currency's value as a strategic obstacle to curbing a trade deficit that reached $8.43 billion in the first quarter, the Financial Times said Friday. Senators will vote no later than July on legislation that would give China six months to revalue its renminbi...

A fresh row over China's textile trade is brewing over Europe's response to growing Chinese clothing imports. A new "early warning system" instituted by Brussels to start an investigation of imports if they breach set levels has provoked Beijing's ire. The proposal "seriously violated" World Trade Organisation rules, China said. Fears are growing about China's strength in textiles following the end of quotas after a 30-year agreement was abolished at the beginning of 2005. Europe's system was in fact intended to avoid inflaming China. Announced by Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson on Wednesday, they fall some way short of those demanded...

MOSCOW (AFP) - French automaker Renault launched production of its low-cost Logan model in Russia, hoping to plant a footprint in the promising Russian market where incomes are rising but car owners are scarce. Delayed Data Providers - Disclaimer The Logan, first introduced last September in Romania, will retail in Russia at between 8,000 and 12,000 dollars (6,150-9,230 euros), compared with initial estimates of around 6,000 dollars, said chairman and chief executive Louis Schweitzer. Schweitzer told a news conference here that a 6,000-dollar price tag would have required "a degree of local integration and a production pace that were much...

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson: taking a tough stance The European Commission has proposed sanctions on a range of US goods as punishment for the US failure to repeal the Byrd Amendment anti-dumping law. The Byrd Amendment permits US firms to benefit from anti-dumping fees gained from foreign companies considered to be selling items too cheaply. The World Trade Organisation ruled it illegal more than a year ago. The Commission said US paper, farm goods, textiles and machinery would face an extra 15% duty from May 1. The Commission has acted in concert with seven other countries which have also...

Economics-free trade may have contributed to the extinction of Neanderthals 30,000-40,000 years ago, according to a paper published in the “Journal of Economic Organization and Behavior.” “After at least 200,000 years of eking out an existence in glacial Eurasia, the Neanderthal suddenly went extinct,” writes University of Wyoming economist Jason Shogren, along with colleagues Richard Horan of Michigan State University and Erwin Bulte from Tilburg University in the Netherlands. “Early modern humans arriving on the scene shortly before are suspected to have been the perpetrator, but exactly how they caused Neanderthal extinction is unknown.” Creating a new kind of caveman...