Economists can’t tell you how tariffs impact your own business, your job or your shopping cart. Nonetheless, as tariffs are set to go higher, we look at how economists are dialing the tariffs into their forecasts about growth for the U.S. and global economy.
Blockchain technologies will play an increasing role in international trade. Using blockchain to track the origins of raw materials and follow domestic and international supply chains can help meet the increasing demand for consumer information about globally produced goods, providing more transparency and accuracy about a product’s long journey to the store.
Economic sanctions are a controversial foreign policy tool used by governments to punish or curb a variety of unwanted behaviors such as human rights violations, terrorism and cybersecurity incursions. Here’s a closer look at how sanctions have been used, what form they take, and the U.S. process for enacting and administering them.
The United States has nearly 8,000 economic sanctions in place, and the list is growing. The muscle behind an array of U.S. financial sanctions derives from the reach and power of the U.S. dollar as the “lead currency” in the global economy.
As rallying calls of “Trade for All” and economic inclusion reverberate throughout national trade agendas, international forums, and across trade negotiation tables, here’s a closer look at trade and gender issues, how trade agreements of the past have addressed them, and how a new generation of trade and gender chapters aim to change the narrative.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is an incubator of trade policy ideas and a pragmatic driver of initiatives in emerging areas of trade that matter not only to the Asia-Pacific region, but also globally. Digital trade is one case study that shows how APEC serves as a building block in the iterative process of co-creating norms for trade.
An estimated 152 million children in the world today are in child labor. Provisions on labor issues have proliferated in trade agreements since NAFTA was implemented. But child labor is a complex problem requiring complex and situational solutions. Only concerted action in local communities and throughout global supply chains will make widespread and demonstrable improvements to lives of the millions of children who are mainly not included in the scope of a trade agreement.
As global trade grows and increases in complexity, trade-based money laundering has become the weakest link in anti-money laundering initiatives. Banks and government officials are strengthening international collaboration to crack down on criminals who hide and launder their dirty money in global trade transactions.
Cambridge is a major hub in Massachusetts’ life sciences ecosystem. What makes up the DNA of vibrant biopharma and medical device industries? Trade associations, overseas governments and investors, and U.S. government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels are all part of the prescription for economic growth.
Over 70 percent of water consumed globally is poured into crop and livestock production. But the water we need to drink, to grow food, and to produce industrial goods is under stress and becoming scarcer in parts of the world. What kinds of solutions offer better opportunities for managing scarce water resources to ensure we can continue growing enough food?