Trade
Navigate forward to interact with the calendar and select a date. Press the question mark key to get the keyboard shortcuts for changing dates.
Navigate backward to interact with the calendar and select a date. Press the question mark key to get the keyboard shortcuts for changing dates.
Growing the innovation economy requires tight and deep integration of global markets—but with the critical caveat that this integration must come with strong commitments to openness and robust, market-oriented national competitiveness policies, not protectionist market distortions. ITIF's research focuses on how to promote robust trade, especially in innovation-based industries, and curb the spread of innovation mercantilism in all its forms.
Featured
How to Mitigate the Damage From China’s Unfair Trade Practices by Giving USITC Power to Make Them Less Profitable
Section 337 of the 1930 Tariff Act allows the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) to bar imports when domestic industries suffer harm due to unfair competition. Congress should expand the law to better address the unfair trade practices China uses to capture market share in advanced industries at America’s expense.
The Hamilton Index of Advanced-Industry Performance: Data Visualization Tool

Seven strategically important industries. Sixty-six countries. Twenty-four years’ worth of value-added output data. This interactive visualization tool benchmarks national performance both in nominal U.S. dollars and relative to national shares of global GDP, an industry-concentration ratio known as a location quotient (LQ).
More Publications and Events
April 27, 2023|Events
Reviving America’s Hamiltonian Tradition to Win the Economic Competition With China
Please join ITIF for an all-day conference with leading experts and policymakers to explore why and how Washington can look to Hamiltonianism for guidance in how to win the techno-economic contest with China.
March 29, 2023|Reports & Briefings
The TikTok Debate Should Start With Reciprocity; Everything Else Is Secondary
Defending Digital Series, No. 16: The recent congressional hearing about TikTok was a missed opportunity to insist that U.S. and Chinese companies be treated equally in both nations.
March 27, 2023|Reports & Briefings
Europe’s Cloud Security Regime Should Focus on Technology, Not Nationality
The EU’s new cloud cybersecurity regime should focus on good security practices, as the U.S. FedRAMP regime does. Emulating China’s protectionist focus on firm nationality is a bad security practice that weakens transatlantic influence over cybersecurity issues globally.
March 8, 2023|Blogs
A Reformed Section 337 Is the Tool for USTR to Mitigate China’s Unfair Trade Practices
Despite over a decade of policy debates and changes, the United States is still in dire need of tools to limit China’s ability to profit from industrial predation.
March 3, 2023|Blogs
Fair’s Fair: Biden Should Use the IRA’s Tax Credits to End Europe’s Targeting of U.S. Tech
The Biden administration should use access to the IRA Act’s EV benefits as the wake-up call that its partners can no longer have it all and that there are meaningful differences between friends and acquaintances when it comes to trade and technology cooperation with the United States.
March 3, 2023|Testimonies & Filings
Comments to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Regarding Technical Standard-Setting Processes
China and other countries with poor human rights records are trying to influence international standards mainly through the International Telecommunications Union. So, the Office of the High Commissioner should focus attention there to address the most problematic proposals for technical standards with clear and troubling human rights implications.
February 28, 2023|Blogs
China Exporter—United States Importer
As economist Herb Stein once famously stated, “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” This is undoubtedly true about the United States’ massive trade imbalance, particularly with China.
February 24, 2023|Blogs
Europe Goes Protectionist on Global Technical Standards: The Example of “Common Specifications”
The Biden administration (and other major trading partners) should push the EU to live up to its statements, abide by its WTO commitments, and support the development and use of international standards for new and emerging technologies.
February 22, 2023|Op-Eds & Commentary
Manufacturing and Trade Balances: A Response from Rob Atkinson
Supporting manufacturing to lower the trade deficit doesn’t have to mean the dreaded “picking winners”. It could mean an investment tax credit and much higher R&D tax credit. It could be official policy to not defend the dollar. It could mean a regulatory system that spurs innovation.
January 20, 2023|Blogs
America’s National Security Concerns Over China Shouldn’t Imperil Its Leadership in Technical Standards Development
In responding to China’s growing efforts to influence standards, the United States should not copy its approach to standards setting in closing off participation to foreign enterprises. Instead, the Biden administration and its like-minded trading partners in Australia, Japan, Singapore, and beyond should revert to first principles as agreed at the WTO and double down on their support for open, transparent, and industry-led standards development, which together demonstrates good governance for standards setting.