The United States Should Establish Permanent Normal Trade Relations With Russia

97 The United States Should Establish Permanent Normal Trade Relations with Russia

This report assesses domestic political support for internationalist foreign policy by analyzing the motivations of members of Congress on key foreign policy issues. It includes case studies on major foreign policy debates in recent years, including the use of force, foreign aid, trade policy and U.S.-Russia relations. It also develops a new series of archetypes for describing the foreign policy worldviews of members of the 115th Congress to replace the current stale and unsophisticated labels of internationalist, isolationist, hawk and dove. Report findings emphasize areas of bipartisan cooperation on foreign policy issues given member ideologies.

A penetrating look into the extreme plutocracy Vladimir Putin has created and its implications for Russia's future This insightful study explores how the economic system Vladimir Putin has developed in Russia works to consolidate control over the country. By appointing his close associates as heads of state enterprises and by giving control of the FSB and the judiciary to his friends from the KGB, he has enriched his business friends from Saint Petersburg with preferential government deals. Thus, Putin has created a super wealthy and loyal plutocracy that owes its existence to authoritarianism. Much of this wealth has been hidden in offshore havens in the United States and the United Kingdom, where companies with anonymous owners and black money transfers are allowed to thrive. Though beneficial to a select few, this system has left Russia's economy in untenable stagnation, which Putin has tried to mask through military might.

Description For more than 50 years the United States has attempted to destabilize and isolate the Castro regime in Cuba with the use of trade and financial sanctions, a policy that has fallen short of its objective. In this Policy Analysis, Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Barbara Kotschwar suggest that the sands of time may accomplish what economic pressure did not. Raúl Castro, president of Cuba since 2008, plans to step down at the end of 2018, implying a new regime in five years. Various forces are starting to emerge favoring economic normalization if Cuba appears ready to change its policies as well as its leadership. The authors caution, however, that a unilateral dismantling of US sanctions without insuring that proper institutions are in place in Cuba could squander a golden opportunity for US companies. They argue that a new US-Cuba relationship must entail a lifting of Cuba's barriers to trade and investment, liberalization of its economy, and the adoption of democratic institutions. They offer a roadmap for a future US-Cuba rapprochement.

It is not in the US interest to adopt tax and regulatory policies that would discourage global engagement by US multinational corporations (MNCs). Research presented in this book shows that the expansion of foreign affiliates of US MNCs is positively associated with more production, greater employment, higher exports, and more research and development (R&D) in the United States. These findings suggest that less investment abroad by US firms would weaken—not strengthen—the US economy. This analysis by no means implies that there are only winners and no losers from outward investment. Changing patterns of MNC investment, like changing patterns of technology and production more generally, contribute to job losses and dislocations for some workers and to new opportunities for others. To benefit the US economy and US workers most broadly, the United States will want to search for ways to strengthen the appeal of the United States as a base for the operations of international firms. High among the recommendations to accomplish this, the United States should adopt a territorial tax system, like the great majority of developed countries.