Skip to the content
CategoryFree Trade Agreements
April 2, 2013

What Could Japan’s Entry into the TPP Mean for Washington?

Last month brought the news that Japan is officially seeking membership in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) regional free trade negotiations. While many people at the national level immediately began pondering what this means for the TPP, your friendly bloggers here at the State of Trade are interested in a much …

Read More
February 14, 2013

See You in the EU

Let’s start off with one of the most important facts of this entire blog post. According to the AP Style Guide, the acronym for the United States is “U.S.” with periods; the acronym for the European Union is “EU” with no period. Not sure why there are no periods in …

Read More
February 13, 2013

Two Paragraphs on Trade from the State of the Union

Last night’s State of the Union featured two paragraphs on international trade. Let’s not get into a discussion of whether that’s too little or too much for a speech that’s about economic opportunity and job growth, especially for a state like Washington where 40% of all jobs are tied to …

Read More
July 17, 2012

What Will Ambassador Marantis Say on Thursday?

This Thursday is the WCIT Summer Luncheon, featuring Deputy United States Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis. This is a pretty big deal for Washington’s international business community: the chance to hear directly from the person in the Obama Administration responsible for U.S.-Asia trade policy. Since a large majority of our state’s …

Read More
June 11, 2012

We Want Japan in the TPP—But Only If It Steps Up

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m a fan of our 4th largest trading partner, Japan, with $195 billion in two-way US-Japan trade.  It is an important geopolitical ally, and the source of my favorite cuisine.  I was pleased when Japan announced last November that it intended to join the Transpacific Partnership …

Read More
January 23, 2012

Parsing the NYT’s Apple Outsourcing Article

Today, the NYT published a major story on Apple’s global supply chain for the iPhone that tries to answer the question that people have been asking over the last twenty or thirty years on trade: “Why are American companies outsourcing jobs, and what – if anything – can be done …

Read More
Site by Northstar Sites