World Perspectives

Friday Policy Shorts

Standards not Tariffs: The complaint against China and some other countries is that production practices are more highly distorted by government policies than in the West. The Biden Administration and former President Donald Trump look to tariffs to solve the problem. By contrast, the EU erects nontariff border measures to address such externalities, such as its EUDR (deforestation) and CBAM (carbon) policies to block imports that are not produced equivalently with its domestic rules. Tariffs are simpler, and more straight forward, but less precise in addressing the actual problem.  Skinny Pigs: An EU study on reducing dependence on imported protein meals calls for more coupled support (e.g. oilseed subsidies) directed at the 7.8 mill...

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Illuminating the value of technical research

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