Facing Sanctions, Iran’s Oil Tankers Go Dark
On November 5, U.S. sanctions went into effect that target Iran’s energy, shipping, and banking sectors, including vessels and banks called out by name. Ahead of the November deadline, Iranian oil tankers moving supplies offshore went “dark” in unprecedented numbers, trying to cloak their movements.
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The New Blueprint for U.S.-Backed Development Financing
The BUILD Act enjoyed bipartisan support in the Congress because it represents to many in the development policy community a smarter, more modern way to advance development objectives. The new development financing agency it creates will also provide an alternative to China's aggressive financing of infrastructure projects in developing markets.
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What’s the Atmosphere for Trade?
DHL created a barometer to predict where storms lie ahead for global trade.
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The Global Space Economy is Taking Off Like a Rocket
Until recently, the gains from commercial use of space manifested primarily in the growing use of satellites that enable precise navigational maps in your car and the dish on your roof to channel satellite television into your home. A new era is dawning in which private companies routinely launch payloads into space. We’re a long way off from having the framework of rules we might need here on Earth to accommodate the take off of the global space industry.
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How Does China Cheat? The White House Counts the Ways
In its June 2018 report, the White House creates a taxonomy of ways the Chinese government acquires American technologies and intellectual property to aggrandize Chinese productive capabilities, stand on the shoulders of American innovation, siphon information from open and proprietary sources, and enlist Chinese nationals to accrue knowledge through research arms of universities and companies in the United States.
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Trade Trends in 8 Charts
A picture is worth a thousand words. Explore and share today's biggest trade trends using these eight colorful charts.
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From the Bible to Chairman Mao’s Quotations: How Trade Agreements Can Promote Global Book Publishing
The popularity of American novels, textbooks, and scholarly works is driving efforts to translate and sell U.S.-published books in countries around the world. Digital publishing offers access to many more consumers beyond our borders. The main challenge to global expansion is the need to promote modern copyright regimes in the countries where publishers seek to sell more books
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A Brush with Unfair Trade
It’s not so easy to find paint-by-number kits these days outside of the Smithsonian Museum of American History, though there’s a limited selection on Amazon. Who makes the brushes, canvases, and little tubs of plastic acrylic paints? Half of the world's brushes and painting canvases are shipped from China. Here's a story about how digging into the source of your favorite hobby materials can lead you on a tale of unfair trade.
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Trump Upped the Ante in High Stakes Game of Tariff Poker
The biggest chunk of tariffs in the Great Tariff War of 2018 is between the United States and China, beginning with two rounds of tit-for-tat tariffs worth around $50 billion against one another. The United States just raised on the ante by another $200 billion. China will not fold; they will go “all in” in this poker game, but we don’t know what that means yet as they hold their cards close.
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Despite Trade Tensions Fireworks Exports from China are Booming
Whether you bought a multipack of screamers, bottle rockets, and roman candles from a roadside stand, or plan to watch a professionally-designed community display this Fourth of July, chances are the fireworks themselves were produced in China.
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