Trade Talks artwork

Trade Talks

204 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 months ago - ★★★★★ - 305 ratings

Chad P. Bown (Peterson Institute for International Economics) hosts a podcast about the economics of international trade and policy. From trade wars to trade deals, this podcast covers trade developments with insights and economic analysis from one of the world's top trade geeks.

Business News Business News
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed

Episodes

And that is all for Trade Talks

January 30, 2024 00:38 - 10 minutes - 12.4 MB

Goodbye for now, as old friend Soumaya Keynes joins Chad Bown to discuss why and what comes next.

200. Has the USMCA improved working conditions in Mexico?

December 19, 2023 01:49 - 46 minutes - 49.5 MB

The USMCA was supposed to prevent workers from being mistreated at Mexican factories. How is it working so far?

199. How trade economists busted corruption at the port

December 10, 2023 15:49 - 37 minutes - 39.2 MB

When customs officials in Madagascar cheated their country out of tax revenues, economists caught them. But the fight is not over yet.

198. Inside Washington’s lobbying industry

December 03, 2023 19:27 - 33 minutes - 34.6 MB

What we know about the US lobbying industry and how it influences trade and other types of economic policy.

197. Moving workers across Europe

November 26, 2023 17:19 - 45 minutes - 45.4 MB

How the European Union’s controversial “posting” policy impacted the movement of workers as well as local communities across the continent.

196. How multinationals avoid taxes through technology licensing

November 19, 2023 22:45 - 28 minutes - 31 MB

Companies can avoid taxes by moving profits from IP royalties offshore. What would happen if that changed?

195. How did Canadian workers adjust so well to US trade?

November 12, 2023 17:11 - 24 minutes - 26 MB

Canadian workers faced new competition after the sudden free trade agreement with the US in 1989. Why were they able to adjust so successfully?

194. Industrial policy detectives: China’s subsidies for shipbuilding

November 05, 2023 18:20 - 40 minutes - 42 MB

A new way to measure China’s subsidies for shipbuilding reveals how much they transformed the industry for the country and world.

193. Did multinationals enforce Bangladesh’s new labor law?

October 29, 2023 19:56 - 42 minutes - 44.7 MB

Following the Rana Plaza factory collapse, foreign companies promised to enforce Bangladesh’s new labor law. What happened next?

192. Will more farm trade cause more deforestation? 

October 22, 2023 21:14 - 27 minutes - 29.4 MB

As trade with farm exporting countries expands, governments must also consider how to prevent deforestation.

191. Brazil’s trade opening and its toll on workers and crime

October 15, 2023 16:01 - 33 minutes - 36.1 MB

How Brazil’s trade liberalization of the 1990s led to unexpected and lasting impacts on workers and a temporary rise in violence.

190. Climate change, floods, and the future of auto supply chains

July 30, 2023 17:17 - 32 minutes - 36.2 MB

What consumers can expect from auto companies investing in supply chain resilience as weather disasters loom.

189. South Korea’s controversial industrial policy

July 23, 2023 18:57 - 34 minutes - 37.6 MB

How South Korea’s Heavy and Chemical Industry Drive policy of 1973-79 worked and may have contributed to its economic rise.

188. Did responsible sourcing by multinationals help workers in poor countries?

July 16, 2023 20:02 - 39 minutes - 42.9 MB

What happened to workers and others in Costa Rica when global companies imposed new responsible sourcing codes of conduct on their suppliers.

187. Industrial policy and the rise of Romania’s Silicon Valley

July 09, 2023 18:13 - 51 minutes - 54 MB

How a 2001 income tax break for Romanian software programmers helped transform the country’s information technology sector.

186. How US lead regulations hurt Mexican babies

June 26, 2023 03:38 - 31 minutes - 35.2 MB

Higher US lead standards in 2009 resulted in more production and pollution from Mexican plants. Nearby infants and kids suffered.

185. The historic collapse of Switzerland’s watch industry

June 18, 2023 17:51 - 28 minutes - 32 MB

New quartz technology and competition from Japan devastated the dominant Swiss watch industry of the 1970s. What happened next?

184. The US-EU fights over electric vehicles and the Inflation Reduction Act

May 07, 2023 19:01 - 46 minutes - 52.5 MB

EVs headlined the transatlantic dispute over the Inflation Reduction Act. That feud may be over, but other conflicts remain.

183. How the United States cleaned up container ship pollution

April 30, 2023 19:44 - 24 minutes - 27.4 MB

In 2012, the EPA started regulating maritime emissions of air pollutants. The shipping industry’s response offers lessons for other countries.

182. Is China’s industrial policy working?

April 23, 2023 19:40 - 44 minutes - 37.8 MB

The “Made in China 2025” subsidies both provoked a trade war and inspired similar moves by the US and other economies. But have they worked?

181. US-China trade war fallout: This is what decoupling looks like

March 21, 2023 19:16 - 45 minutes - 51.6 MB

How do we reconcile “record-level” US-China imports and exports when tariffs remain on more than half of trade between the two economies?

180. The WTO is in trouble. Econ 101 to the rescue?

March 12, 2023 19:11 - 1 hour - 74.2 MB

How understanding the WTO’s past can help foster its revival – including for policy challenges like climate and China’s non-market economy.

179. Why Taiwan restricts high-tech investment into China

February 26, 2023 20:40 - 35 minutes - 38.1 MB

For decades, Taiwan has limited how and how much its tech firms like TSMC could invest in mainland China. Are there lessons for the United States?

178. Why sanctions to stop Russian gas pipelines backfired

February 19, 2023 21:00 - 53 minutes - 70.8 MB

US sanctions on European allies repeatedly failed to stop Russian gas pipelines, harmed transatlantic ties, and undermined US policy.

177. How the Rana Plaza factory collapse changed global supply chains

February 12, 2023 20:11 - 32 minutes - 33.7 MB

New research examines how NGOs, consumers, and major retailers responded to the outrage following the 2013 tragedy in Bangladesh.

176. The Cold War scandal over export controls

January 29, 2023 21:44 - 47 minutes - 53.2 MB

The leakage of submarine technology to the Soviet Union in the 1980s has lessons for the limits to and coordination of allies’ export controls today.

175. The dreaded WTO ruling on Trump’s national security tariffs

January 22, 2023 21:21 - 54 minutes - 65.2 MB

The WTO ruled against Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs, dragging the organization into thorny national security issues.

174. The incredible rise of Chinese fintech

December 18, 2022 21:21 - 27 minutes - 31.8 MB

New super apps and other internet-enabled technologies have transformed China’s financial sector, with global implications, says Martin Chorzempa.

173: Did Britain’s slave trade help drive its industrial revolution?

December 08, 2022 10:26 - 26 minutes - 24.6 MB

New research reveals how Britain’s economy benefited from the brutal transatlantic slave trade and its slave holdings.

172. Peru’s “China shock”: Surprising turns and the women left behind

November 21, 2022 23:35 - 39 minutes - 38.5 MB

A flood of imports from China had an unexpected impact on the Peruvian clothing industry while discouraging Peru’s women workers.

171. What makes a supply chain resilient

November 15, 2022 21:57 - 37 minutes - 39.8 MB

New research examining India’s pandemic lockdowns sheds light on which supply chains stuck together, which broke apart, and why.

170. National security, semiconductors, and the US move to cut off China

November 02, 2022 22:14 - 59 minutes - 74.3 MB

The history behind the sudden US ban on certain exports to China, and how the policy affects the global semiconductor supply chain.

169. Taiwan’s risky trade opening and how it paid off

October 25, 2022 23:20 - 31 minutes - 34.7 MB

In the 1950s, Taiwan was the first poor economy to experiment with trade reform. How its success changed the course of history for others.

168. Did Trump’s trade war make China more protectionist?

October 10, 2022 21:12 - 23 minutes - 25.7 MB

Why it matters that Chinese public opinion toward trade and technology may have changed in response to US policy.

167. Will new US tax credits remake electric vehicle supply chains?

October 03, 2022 23:21 - 29 minutes - 32.2 MB

America’s new EV subsidies have some carmakers upset. Others are head scratching. Can supply chains diversify away from China?

166. Biden’s new Indo-Pacific talks vs. TPP

September 21, 2022 22:04 - 44 minutes - 45.2 MB

America’s last attempt at trade talks with countries in the region ended badly. How Biden’s IPEF approach is different.

165. The global minimum tax got left behind. What’s next?

September 05, 2022 22:01 - 46 minutes - 59.8 MB

The Inflation Reduction Act omits the key global minimum corporate tax agreed to by over 135 countries. Will cooperation still happen?

164. Why a notorious banana company spared workers in Costa Rica

July 27, 2022 00:01 - 38 minutes - 49 MB

For decades, United Fruit Company exploited banana workers across its Latin American plantations, except in Costa Rica. Why?

163. How poorer Americans ended up paying for US tariffs.

July 19, 2022 19:51 - 37 minutes - 42.7 MB

From fashion to forks to fishing reels, how US trade negotiations starting in the 1930s resulted in regressive import duties today.

162. Poor countries could once enforce WTO trade. That is now at risk.

July 05, 2022 01:53 - 39 minutes - 44.2 MB

The Advisory Centre on WTO Law made trade enforcement possible for poor countries. The Appellate Body crisis put that under threat.

161. Why sharing patents for COVID-19 medicines is not enough

June 26, 2022 23:12 - 42 minutes - 46.3 MB

Despite the Medicines Patent Pool, COVID-19 treatments remain scarce globally. Prashant Yadav explains what more is needed.

160. How Putin’s war could disrupt global food supplies

March 15, 2022 17:43 - 30 minutes - 34.7 MB

Joe Glauber explains the humanitarian crisis that looms if war cuts wheat exports from Ukraine and Russia. Soumaya Keynes says goodbye.

159. How Biden and Europe settled Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs

November 08, 2021 00:53 - 22 minutes - 24.3 MB

After years of dispute, the EU agreed to stop retaliating and to limit exports if the US lifted Trump’s national security tariffs.

158. How America responded to its PPE shortage

October 11, 2021 23:12 - 45 minutes - 47.7 MB

The US reacted to COVID-19 shortfalls of hospital masks, gowns and gloves with unprecedented trade and industrial policy.

157. Europe’s Trade Policy and Open Strategic Autonomy

September 27, 2021 23:25 - 40 minutes - 41.2 MB

Worried about being bullied by trading partners, the European Union is developing a host of new policy tools.

156. Tackling climate change with a carbon border adjustment mechanism

July 25, 2021 20:20 - 43 minutes - 45.2 MB

CBAM! The EU proposes phasing out free permits from its emissions trading system and phasing in a carbon tax on some imports.

155. How trade can break up with paper (it involves blockchain)

June 27, 2021 23:49 - 31 minutes - 32.4 MB

Legally and technologically, paper documents are essential to international trade. How that could change (it involves blockchain).

154. Global Britain: How’s that going then?

June 17, 2021 15:11 - 27 minutes - 28.3 MB

A beginner's guide to the spat over Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol, plus the UK signs a new trade deal with Australia.

153. Multilateral tax cooperation gets one step closer

June 09, 2021 00:54 - 57 minutes - 60 MB

The G7 economies agreed to a potential historic change in how governments tax multinational corporations.

152. The murky world of export restrictions for COVID-19 vaccines

March 22, 2021 02:13 - 36 minutes - 34.3 MB

COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine inputs are in short supply globally. How the EU, UK, US and India are all limiting exports.

Guests

Paul Krugman
1 Episode

Books

The White House
1 Episode