Impeachment hearings once again crowded out any progress on trade policy last month. Your nation’s capital became enthralled by captivating testimony from members of the Trump administration on negotiations over the release of military aide to Ukraine. That leaves time running very short for passage of USMCA, but a green light from the House Speaker right before the Thanksgiving break […]

Trade Must Have Been Nice Last Year . . .  Well we had to wait all year, but December revealed which list the international trade community was on – there were an awful lot of presents for trade right before the end of the year!  Confirmation of Brexit, a modest trade deal with China, a federal budget, and USMCA passage […]

The 2020 Election Heats Up – Yesterday, the Iowa caucuses began in earnest, kicking off the voting for a Democratic challenger this November. The Senate is expected to formally vote tomorrow to bring an end to the impeachment trial of President Trump. With impeachment proceedings complete, and primary voting in full swing, the 2020 campaign is likely to consume all […]

Coronavirus – one word pretty much sums up the news from last month, whether the topic was economics, trade, or politics. Soccer teams playing to empty stadiums in Europe. Commercial flight cancellations reducing air freight capacity. A 15 year bull market coming to a screeching halt. Factories, especially in China’s Hubei Province, completely closed or struggling to produce without employees […]

Groundhog Day – It was fun at first. Staying home from work. Staying home from school. Teaching Grandma to Zoom. But now the days are starting to run together for the FTZine staff. No one has to go to work today . . . again. The kids are home from school today . . .again. There’s no toilet paper at […]

We Could All Use Some Angels Right Now – The Blue Angels (and Thunderbirds) were in town this past weekend to salute the heroic work of first responders and health care workers around the country. The hospital flyover by the Navy and Air Force precision air teams provided a much-needed distraction in your Nation’s Capital.Then it was back to reality. […]

Growing Grip of The Pandemic – The impact of the coronavirus has gotten deeper and is affecting trade in ways that could not have been predicted at the outset of the pandemic. Taiwan and Hong Kong have now become flash points in the trade dispute between the United States and China, and tensions continue to escalate.Rapidly growing unemployment is forcing […]

A New Era of North American Trade Begins – Today marks the official start of a new free trade agreement in North America.  North of the border its known as the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), south as the Tratado Mexico, Estados Unidos, Canada (T-MEC) and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) here at home.  Even though the countries couldn’t agree on […]

Election Talk Heats Up – As Tropical Storm Isaias is bearing down on your Nation’s Capital today, talk of the November election has taken a slight pause.  As soon as the winds outside the Capitol stop blowing though, expect the wind inside the Capitol to gust anew focused on how the election might take place in the face of the […]