The USMCA review presents a critical opportunity to address nontariff barriers — particularly inefficient and misaligned customs processes — that undermine the economic and security gains the agreement is designed to deliver.
Author Archives: PolicyTrader
Posted inThink Tank News
Lowy: Thailand’s auto industry has a bigger problem than China
Thailand’s automotive decline stems primarily from weak domestic demand and EV incentives that have failed to build a local supplier base, not merely from Chinese import competition.
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ASPI: As Trump restricts AI, Australia needs options
As the United States increasingly treats advanced AI models as guarded national assets subject to export controls, Australia risks being locked out of cutting-edge technology that will determine its economic, social, and security future.
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ASPI: China wants to control supply chain knowledge
China is building legal tools to treat supply chain knowledge as a strategic asset, using new regulations to control who can collect, use, and act on that information.
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Reinsch: USTR is half right on forced labor
USTR investigations found all 60 countries guilty of forced-labor violations, confirming one prediction, but the remedy — flat tariff rates rather than links to previously negotiated trade agreements — did not match what the author had forecast.
Posted inThink Tank News
ASPI: China is teaching Australia an economic power lesson
China’s creation of a coordinated iron ore purchasing body (CMRG) demonstrates that economic power increasingly resides with those who organise demand, not merely those who own resources.
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CSIS: Brazil’s effort to regulate digital markets
Brazil’s proposed Fair Competition Act for Digital Markets offers a flexible, context-sensitive alternative to the EU’s Digital Markets Act by empowering CADE to designate systemically relevant firms and tailor obligations accordingly, but this same flexibility risks creating regulatory uncertainty that could deter investment.
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Atlantic Council: US Oil Export Ban Could Raise Prices
Restricting US crude oil or petroleum product exports would not lower domestic gasoline prices and would instead likely raise them by disrupting refinery operations and reducing overall product output.
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Atlantic Council: EU Prepares to End China’s Export Surge
The EU is assembling a comprehensive new toolkit—including aggressive trade defence instruments, industrial policy, and an overcapacity mechanism—to counter the systemic challenge posed by China’s export-driven industrial model.
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Atlantic Council: Can Section 301 Effectively Replace IEEPA?
The Trump administration can reconstruct much of the IEEPA tariff wall through an expanded Section 301 architecture, potentially generating up to $169–170 billion in annual tariff revenue based on 2025 import levels.