Research Library

David A. Gantz, the Will Clayton Fellow in Trade and International Economics, analyzes a wide range of factors — including the U.S.-China trade war, the entry into force of the United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) and the COVID-19 pandemic — that are all contributing to the pressure on the U.S. to decouple from China and to shift supply chains back to North America.

When President-elect Joe Biden assumes office in January, he will be compelled to deal with the most important and ferociously complicated geopolitical question the United States faces today: how to manage its relations with China. Fellow Joe Barnes explains how the U.S.-China situation differs from the Cold War dynamic, and how the U.S. will best be served in the years ahead. Read more at the Baker Institute Blog.

A defense diplomacy shielded from the influence of nationalistic and partisan sentiments presents a valuable opportunity for the U.S. to advance regional security in the Indo-Pacific, and to forge a path to a more equitable and peaceful future with China, writes nonresident scholar Daniel Katz.

Gabriel Collins, the Baker Botts Fellow in Energy & Environmental Regulatory Affairs, analyzes the impact of China’s emerging demographic decline, debt burden and increasingly likely structural economic growth downshift on global oil and gas markets.

In the last of a series of reports on the USMCA, fellow David Gantz considers the trade-related matters that could affect the success of the USMCA as a mechanism for encouraging investment, creating new jobs and enhancing consumer welfare in North America.

The author analyzes some important new provisions in the USMCA that were not part of earlier USMCA briefs in this series.

This policy report explains how specific tools of economic statecraft can be applied to reduce risks caused by dependence on People’s Republic of China-dominated supply chains for critical goods. It offers foundational building blocks for the formulation and implementation of a larger strategy to reduce American vulnerabilities to China.

The COVID-19 pandemic has compounded concerns over a U.S.-China trade deal, write the authors, but a mutual commitment to long-term purchases could be the solution. Read more on the Baker Institute Blog. This post originally appeared in the Forbes blog on April 8, 2020.

The authors outline a cure for a component of the U.S.-China Phase 1 Trade Agreement that requires China to purchase $50 billion of energy products in the next two years.

The authors examine the potential impacts of the U.S.-China trade dispute for U.S. and Northeast Asian economies, with a specific focus on energy markets.