12th November 2016

The US Administration admitted on November 11 it no longer expected Congressional ratification of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) during the Obama Presidency. President-elect Trump has already announced abandoning the deal...

12th November 2016

On October 22, Donald Trump published his work programme for the first hundred days of his Presidency. So far as this industry is concerned, that programme – reproduced, slightly abbreviated,...

9th November 2016

Practically every observer thought Hillary Clinton would win the US Presidential election this morning. Most went on to predict her mild hostility to further trade liberalisation meant the short-term prospects...

5th May 2016

Those who believe Donald Trump will become as pro-trade as previous US presidents if he won the November election seriously misunderstand him. A recent article for Sourcing Journal looked at...

2nd March 2016

I simply don't buy US lobbyists' conviction the TPP will get ratified this year. Shouldn't they abandon the attempt? After the Super Tuesday Primary results, more and more U.S. Congress...

11th August 2015

Threats of retaliation against China were mounting as a 1.9% devaluation announced on August 11 turned into a 4.4% fall by August 14. The devaluations followed a July 8.3%year-on-year fall...

17th June 2015

Why is the TPP (and with it the TTIP and the TiSA) so close to death? In a June 17 Sourcing Journal article I argued that their obsession with secrecy...

9th June 2015

There's a lot more behind African apparel exports' dismal record than the stop-start history of one US trade concession, I argued in my June 9 Flanarant. That Flanarant looked at...

1st June 2015

...says Yale  lecturer Stephen Roach, after a week in which the IMF rejected claims that China is manipulating its currency - but half the US Senate continued to vote for...

13th May 2015

Though possibly temporary, the May 12 US Senate rejection of a proposal to speed up approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) also imperilled progress on other key trade issues -...

4th May 2015

The EU and US will not finish negotiating their proposed  Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) in 2015, the EU's chief negotiator admitted on April 28. "It is clear that...

11th March 2015

In this week's Sourcing Journal Online Op-Ed, I've looked at the contrast between US attitudes to foreign trade infrastructure ("If we must, fine. As long as it doesn't cost") and...