| SPEECH |
| Kolbe tesitifes before House Committee on Foreign Affairs |
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Senior Transatlantic Fellow Jim Kolbe, a former Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, testified April 23 before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs about foreign assistance reform in the next administration.
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| GMF sponsored conference: Systemic Implications of Transatlantic Regulatory Cooperation and Competition |
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On May 8-9, 2008, GMF will sponsor a conference in conjunction with the University of Michigan, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy to explore a number of regulatory issues involving trade and related policies that cut across the economies of the United States and European Union and that have wider ramifications for the global trading system as a whole.
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| EVENT |
| Assessing the outcomes of the U.S.-EU biofuels working group |
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On February 22, GMF hosted a roundtable meeting on the European proposal for a new EU directive on the use of renewable energy and to assess the outcomes of the February 21 meeting of the EU-U.S. biofuels working group under the EU-U.S. Strategic Energy Cooperation. The speakers featured Alexandra Langenheld, a national expert on regulatory policy and promotion of renewable energy at the European Commission's Directorate General for Energy and Transport, and Jeff Skeer from the office of policy and international affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy.
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| PRESS RELEASE |
| Daimler Senior Vice President Robert Liberatore joins GMF as Senior Transatlantic Fellow |
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Robert G. Liberatore will join GMF this summer as a Senior Transatlantic Fellow. At GMF, Liberatore will work on issues surrounding the transatlantic business relationship and the upcoming U.S. presidential election.
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| PRESS RELEASE |
| New study says converting to cropland adds greenhouse gas emissions to the cost of biofuels |
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A study published on February 7, 2008 by Science magazine and Tim Searchinger, a GMF transatlantic fellow, finds that biofuels that use cropland are likely to increase greenhouse gases because previous analyses of biofuels ignored a crucial factor - the use of land. Most prior studies have found that substituting biofuels for gasoline will reduce greenhouse gases because biofuels sequester carbon through the growth of the feedstock. However, these analyses have failed to count the carbon emissions that occur as forests and grasslands are converted to new cropland for biofuel production.
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| July 22: Doha: EU Makes New Offer; CRP Analysis |
Note: Due to travel plans, FarmPolicy.com will not be published tomorrow, Wednesday, July 23. Updates are planned to resume on Thursday, July 24.
Doha
Stephen Castle reported in today’s New York Times that, “The European Union began crucial global trade talks Monday with an offer of reducing its farm tariffs by 60 percent — the highest [...]
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| July 21: Doha Talks Get Started; CRP Issues |
Doha- General Overview
Stephen Castle reported in Saturday’s New York Times that, “When global trade talks ran into the night in Geneva in the summer of 2006, so many negotiators crammed into one room that they had to choose between sweltering with the windows closed or opening them and fending off swarms of insects.
“For ministers preparing [...]
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| July 18: Doha Developments; CRP, Commodity Price Impacts |
Doha
Yesterday, the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office (USTR) released three “Fact Sheets” that provided background and perspective on the WTO Doha Round of trade negotiations.
The first document, “Doha Development Agenda,” provided a timeline of key events that have occurred throughout the multi-lateral negotiations and explained that, “The World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha Development Agenda (DDA) has [...]
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| More Keith Good's FarmPolicy.com |
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If Not Now, Then When?
GMF Opinion Brief
Joe Guinan and Courtney Phillips-Youman
As ministers gather around the WTO negotiating table the week of July 21 in Geneva, there are troubling questions about whether the deal that is at hand is really worth doing and whether it is even possible to conclude an agreement at present, given the political constraints-especially those associated with a U.S. presidential election year. |
The U.S. Presidential Election and the Prospects for Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Joseph Quinlan
GMF Opinion Brief
The transatlantic partnership over the past eight years has been under constant strain, creating an atmosphere of disappointment and distrust on both sides of the Atlantic. This brief examines the transatlantic economic partnership on trade and investment and the prospects of whether or not that relationship will continue to flourish under a new U.S. administration in 2009 or whether there will be a new tide of protectionism.
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Walking a Tightrope: World Trade in Manufacturing and the Benefits of Binding
GMF Policy Brief
Written by Patrick Messerlin
Negotiators in Geneva are still struggling to conclude the Doha Round of multilateral trade talks at the World Trade Organization (WTO). Doubts have been fueled by the modesty of recent estimates of the gains on the table in the negotiations on Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA).
This policy brief argues that a completed Doha Round has more to offer to the U.S. and European private sector than cuts to already low applied industrial tariffs. The real gold mine in the Doha negotiations is the increased certainty that would flow from large cuts to bound tariff rates.
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Narrowing the Transatlantic Climate Divide: A Roadmap to Progress
GMF Policy Paper and Brief
Written by Nigel Purvis
Most climate change opinion leaders on both sides of the Atlantic have modest expectations for the July Summit in Hokkaido, Japan—the location of both the G-8 leaders’ meeting and the Major Economies Meeting (MEM), an initiative launched by President Bush last year that involves the world’s 16 major economic powers and emitters, plus the EU. Transatlantic allies seem to be an ocean apart over how quickly Europe, the United States, and other major economies should reduce emissions over the next decade, but downplaying Hokkaido could be a serious mistake. |
As Farm Bill Nears Vote, Bush Presses for Fewer Subsidies
Dan Morgan
Washington Post
President Bush's decision in 2002 to sign a farm bill loaded with billions of dollars of new agricultural subsidies triggered considerable criticism from GOP conservatives true to the party's anti-spending philosophy. |
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