exports Archives | Restoring Liberty

Time to Lift the Antiquated Ban on Crude Exports

December 19, 2014/0 Comments/in Featured, Opinion /by Nicolas Loris

Photo: Charlie Neuman/U-T San Diego

Gasoline prices continue to drop across the country with the national average falling to $2.50 per gallon.

Are low prices good or bad for the prospects for lifting the ban to export crude oil? The reality is it shouldn’t matter because energy free trade will benefit the United States in both the near term and the long run. That’s why Congress should lift the ban regardless.

One of the primary concerns among skeptics of lifting the crude export ban is the effect that increased oil exports might have on domestic gas prices.

Several studies have projected that lifting the ban would actually decrease gas prices both in the United States and globally. Because oil is a globally traded commodity and refiners are equipped to handle different qualities of crude oil, an open market for shipping crude would better match global refining capabilities. Despite the fact that all signs point to lower fuel prices in the U.S., the skepticism remains.

The federal ban on exporting crude oil has been in place since the 1970s to fight potential fuel shortages caused by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) oil embargo. Rep. Joe Barton, R–Texas, recently introduced a bill to lift the still-in-place ban on crude oil exports.

China Eclipses U.S. as Biggest Trading Nation Measured in Goods

February 11, 2013/3 Comments/in Featured, International /by Bloomberg News

China surpassed the U.S. to become the world’s biggest trading nation last year as measured by the sum of exports and imports of goods, official figures from both countries show.

U.S. exports and imports of goods last year totaled $3.82 trillion, the U.S. Commerce Department said last week. China’s customs administration reported last month that the country’s trade in goods in 2012 amounted to $3.87 trillion.

China’s growing influence in global commerce threatens to disrupt regional trading blocs as it becomes the most important commercial partner for some countries. Germany may export twice as much to China by the end of the decade as it does to France, estimated Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Jim O’Neill.

“For so many countries around the world, China is becoming rapidly the most important bilateral trade partner,” O’Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs’s asset management division and the economist who bound Brazil to Russia, India and China to form the BRIC investing strategy, said in a telephone interview. “At this kind of pace by the end of the decade many European countries will be doing more individual trade with China than with bilateral partners in Europe.”

Once confident China, “rattled” by Europe’s debt crisis; Chinese exports plunge

August 31, 2012/0 Comments/in Featured, International /by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Premier Wen Jiabao told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Europe must “strike a balance” between fiscal tightening and measures to promote growth. “Europe’s debt crisis has continued to worsen, giving rise to serious concerns in the international community. Frankly, I am also worried,” he said.

His comments mark a shift in Chinese policy. Beijing has until now backed austerity across Euroland, but the severity of China’s own downturn has begun to rattle policymakers.

Exports of electronic goods to Italy crashed 43pc in July from a year earlier, and sales to Germany fell 11pc. Caixin reported that processing trade to Europe fell 21pc.

The country’s two largest shipping groups COSCO and China Shipping both reported a drastic losses today. The Shanghai composite index of stocks threatened to break below 2000 today, the lowest since the Lehman crisis.

Mr Wen asked for clarification over whether Italy and Spain would adopt “comprehensive rescue measures” needed to unlock the EU bail-out machinery – and open the door to bond purchases by the European Central Bank.

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