| 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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| EVENT |
| 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 4: Doha- “Moment of Truth,” Biofuels & Food Inflation, CRP Pressure |
Yesterday, a “Memorandum to the World’s Trade Ministers,” an item penned by WTO Director General Pascal Lamy, was posted at the International Herald-Tribune Online.
In part, the item stated that, “The coming weeks represent the moment of truth for the Doha Round. If we are to conclude the Doha Round, we must strike a deal this [...]
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| July 3: Doha Developments, Price Concerns and Biofuels |
An article posted yesterday at Bridges Online (Weekly Trade News Digest) indicated that, “WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy rolled the dice last week, summoning ministers to Geneva later this month in a risky bid to salvage a deal in the troubled Doha Round of trade talks.
“The move is a gamble. Despite recent progress, significant divisions persist, [...]
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| July 2: Sarkozy & Mandelson: EU Agricultural Issues |
John Thornhill reported yesterday at the Financial Times Online that, “Europe’s agricultural production will not be sacrificed on the ‘altar of global liberalism’, Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president, vowed last night, threatening to block any deal at the World Trade Organisation that jeopardised the region’s farming industry.
“Mr Sarkozy said he would not accept the loss of [...]
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| More Keith Good's FarmPolicy.com |
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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. |
Emptying the Breadbasket
Dan Morgan
Washington Post
At Stephen Fleishman's busy Bethesda shop, the era of the 95-cent bagel is coming to an end. Breaking the dollar barrier "scares me," said the Bronx-born owner of Bethesda Bagels. Fleishman and his customers are hardly alone. Across America, turmoil in the world wheat markets has sent prices of bread, pasta, noodles, pizza, pastry and bagels skittering upward, bringing protests from consumers.
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