Publications: Rodrigo Balbontin

The USMCA strengthens America’s position to compete with China. First, by enabling U.S. manufacturers to source inputs from Canada and Mexico at lower cost. Second, by weakening China’s manufacturing capacity as it incentivizes firms to reshore production to North America and substitute Chinese imports with inputs or final products made within the region.

Huawei is a more innovative company today than it was before the U.S. government sought to choke its supply chain. This case should serve as a lesson: U.S. techno-economic power is weaker than most think, and sanctions often hurt U.S. competitiveness more than China’s.

For the EIA to succeed, the Commission needs to address Europe’s broader economic policy environment. The EU’s reliance on the precautionary principle has entrenched a risk-first mindset that slows innovation and diverts resources away from competition and quality improvement.

ITIF recommends that USTR include Temu, AliExpress, and SHEIN on the 2025 Notorious Markets List because all three platforms meet USTR’s criteria as notorious online markets. They facilitate systemic trafficking in counterfeit goods, harming U.S. right holders, undermining fair competition, and placing U.S. consumers at risk.

This report ranks more than 200 regions across Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and the United States on 13 commonly available indicators of innovation competitiveness, and offers policymakers a guide to bolstering regional and national innovation capacity.

Canada should approach exploratory talks regarding a Canada–EU digital trade agreement with caution. Greater alignment with the EU may appear to provide a hedge against U.S. influence, but in practice it risks importing a framework that impedes the potential for Canada’s digital economy and industries while raising compliance costs.

To counter China’s telecom dominance and restore U.S. competitiveness, policymakers should lead a global push for Open RAN standards that foster security, innovation, and fair competition.

A proposed patent tax would punish startups, weaken U.S. competitiveness, and gut a system that has powered American innovation for centuries—all without solving the budget problem it aims to address.

Room remains for the Trump administration to better balance the interests of restoring American manufacturing, removing other nations’ unfair trade practices, and orientating like-mined nations to the long-term China threat in the execution of the Trump administration’s trade and tariff policies.

As U.S. tariffs rise, countries are protecting themselves from American trade policy while cutting new free trade deals elsewhere. A new GTIPA report explores how this paradox could sideline the United States in the next global trade order.