Publications: Rodrigo Balbontin

China has consistently failed to meet its WTO commitments, continuing to harm U.S. competitiveness. In response, Congress and the USTR should prepare a phased, strategic pathway to revoke China's Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status if Beijing refuses to reform.

As U.S.-Canada trade tensions escalate, both countries risk weakening the North American production base they need to compete with China—and turning a manageable dispute into a costly, self-defeating trade war.

A survey among 32 think tank members of the Global Trade and Innovation Policy Alliance (GTIPA) across 25 countries finds strong optimism about technological progress, but much less confidence in the global policy environment. Respondents are bullish on emerging technologies and skeptical of recent trade changes, and broadly favor skills and trade openness.

Instead of copying other OECD countries in a “reference-price-race-to-the-bottom,” U.S. policy should instead encourage peer countries to appropriately value innovative medicines.

The era of free trade globalization is over. To replace it, the United States should lead a new class of binding deals with allies, with a dual objective of strengthening allied national economic power industries and weakening China’s.

The USMCA’s digital trade rules set the global standard. Now, policymakers should modernize them for the age of AI, close loopholes that enable data localization and discriminatory taxes, and build a more secure, competitive North American digital economy.

The USMCA is the operating system for North American production, investment, talent, and digital commerce. Canada, Mexico, and the United States should renew the agreement and explore ways to update it to preserve certainty, deepen regional supply chains and innovation capabilities, and strengthen the continent’s ability to compete with China.

The U.S. government does not need to create a Board to manage trade with China—it needs to use all its available tools to urge China to conduct economic relations in accordance with established trade rules, commitments which China has already clearly and unequivocally made to the United States and to other global trade partners.

Canadian, Mexican, and U.S. trade negotiators should view the USMCA renewal process as an opportunity to move beyond the old free-trade model and build a strategic North American economic bloc capable of producing, innovating, and competing at the scale required by the China challenge.

The EU has an array of discriminatory policies that target major U.S. tech firms, a legitimate basis for action under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. U.S. policymakers should favor amicably negotiated solutions, but this tool is available as a last resort if necessary.