government can't stop the presses in advance of the court actually acknowledges there's a possibility that once the "new york times" and the "washington post" published this there could be prosecutions afterwards. >> i think the gravitational force of the "new york times" case has created a political atmosphere where come within churchly broad balance, we do not go after the press for publishing things even with the statutes seem to say that we could. >> watch landmark cases "new york times" versus united states with guest floyd abrams represent the "new york times" in its case against the nixon administration and ted olson the form u.s. solicitor general under president george w. bush live monday night at nine eastern on c-span. >> a conversation from heritage foundation on its index of economic freedom.

repairing the economy's of wonder 86 different countries, wilbur ross spoke at this event. he talked about the trump administration's traded economic policies. >> good afternoon. welcome to the heritage foundation. our program today will be hosted by ambassador terry miller. we've given copies of the book that he's chief editor of for your future reference as well as for reference during a presentation this morning. he serves heritage as the fellow and economic freedom. the is also director of our center for international trade and economics. prior to joining as he served for 26 years or more as a public servant and in the diplomatic corps. among his appointments with

serving as ambassador to united nations economic and social council, appointment by president george george w. bus. also serve before that as deputy assistant secretary of state for economic and global issues as well as holding positions in appointment with the united nations. please join me in welcoming terry miller. [applause] >> thank you, john. good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. welcome to the heritage foundation. i know many of your come today to hear our keynote speaker, secretary wilbur ross, and he will be joining us in a few minutes. in the meantime it is my honor to present to you the 24th edition of our annual index of economic freedom, which we are officially launching today here in the united states. i hope you're picked up a copy of the index on your weight in. if not please grab one as you leave the building today. i also want to recognize my coeditors of the index, anthony

kim, , who i don't see any auditorium right now, and jim roberts who is sitting right down here in the front row. the index this year max 180 countries in countries in 12 categories of economic freedom. we put those scores together to arrive at an overall economic freedom score that serves as the basis for the global rankings. topping our rankings for the 24th year in a row is hong kong. the cities commitment to its free market and trading routes seems as strong as ever. a remarkable feat when you take into account the evolution of its political situation with mainland china. in second place, again, as has been the case and every year we produced the index is singapore. hong kong and singapore are the only economies judged economically free in every

category of economic freedom that we look at. other economies judged free in this year's rankings were new zealand, switzerland, australia, and ireland. there were a few other countries that distinguished themselves as leaders in economic freedom within their respective geographic regions. hong kong of course was the best in the asia-pacific region, and switzerland have the highest score in europe. the united arab emirates topped all countries in the middle east, north africa. canada is for the ninth year in a row the freest economy in the americas. as assistant united states i have to say that the last fact

is a great disappointment to me personally. this chart shows the bottom 20 and the top 20 overall scores and our index. i put up mail because it gives me an opportunity to talk about the united states, which is fallen over the past ten years from fifth place the 18th place in the rankings. there was a slight uptick in the u.s. score this year which gives some hope that the decline is coming to an end. but we'll have to see the impact of the new policies like the tax cuts that were adopted earlier this year. on the other side of this chart there are many sad stories but none sad i think then venezuela which ranked 46th in the world when we started this project in 1995 but now has full right to the bottom of the rankings just

above north korea. as you can see from this like they're only modest differences in economic freedom between the various regions. your past highest average economic freedom score and most european countries are found in the top half of the rankings. sub-saharan africa lags behind. differences within regions are much more pronounced than differences between regions. the asia-pacific region has four economies that are among the freest in the world. mentioned before, hong kong, singapore, new zealand and australia. on the other hand, it has three economically repressed countries, including last-place north korea. the americas region is evenly divided between countries that are moderately or mostly free and those that are mostly unfree

are oppressed. most countries in this region are groups to the middle of the rankings. the vast majority of european countries are at least moderately free contributing no doubt to the high levels of average income on that continent. the countries of the middle east and north africa are evenly distributed within the middle three categories of the rankings. unfortunately there are also four countries in this region that we were unable to rank because of political instability or violence. such are africa has only one country that can be considered mostly free, and eight others that are moderately free. the majority of african countries lack almost any significant elements of economic freedom, trapping the people at low levels of development. despite these differences within

and among the regions there's one relationship that is constant. countries with higher level of economic freedom have higher and in most cases much higher per capita incomes than countries that lack freedom. this chart compares incomes in the five freest and the five least free countries in each region. in addition to celebrating countries that do well in the rankings, we also like to recognize countries no matter the ranking that have made significant improvements in economic freedom this year. 80 have the biggest overall gain in economic freedom with a major effort to get its fiscal deficit under control and significant improvements in the rule of law. barbados, however, made the biggest jump in the rule of law category with big gains in judicial effectiveness and

reducing corruption. slovenia was a most improved and respecting the concept of limited government with a big effort to get its budget deficits under control and also control of its government debt. and tunisia have big gains in both trade freedom and investment freedom and pushed it open market score up by almost ten points. ukraine made gains in all three of the regulatory categories, that's a business freedom, labor freedom, and monetary freedom. and that i think shows that economic progress need not stop for countries facing internal or external political challenges. we measure these categories independently, but they do interact with one another. progress in one area can enhance the benefits from policy changes in another, and the boards of a

particular category may vary depending on a countries level of development. there's one category, , however, that stands out as a special development to countries that all levels of development, and that's the freedom to trade. the freedom to trade is highly correlated with overall economic freedom and prosperity, both for the world as a whole and within every region and at all levels of development. i want to move on now to highlight some of the ways in which economic freedom makes a difference to people around the world. we can see that economic freedom has been trending upwards over the life of the index. over that same time, global gdp has just about doubled, and poverty rates have dropped by over two-thirds. in an economically freer world,, billions of people have escaped

poverty and enjoyed for the first time ever the opportunity for economic advancement. the benefits of freedom can also be seen by comparing countries at a single point in time. they slide shows the correlation between economic freedom and gross domestic product per capita. those living in economically freer societies enjoy much higher incomes on average than those where freedoms are restricted. and the benefits from improvements in economic freedom, once you've achieved a basic level, say a score of around 60 or so, those improvements can be quite dramatic. just look at this steep slope of that curve on the left-hand side. on the other hand, one of the most interesting results of the index is that for any countries at any level of economic freedom there's a correlation between

changes in economic freedom, that is, improvements, and economic growth rates. no matter how low your current score, you are likely to see improvements in economic growth if you take steps to improve your economic freedom. the positive relationship holds over all time periods come here we should data for five, ten and 20 year period, and in all cases countries that have improved economic freedoms the most at the highest growth rates on average. wealth and income are not the only or even perhaps the most important factors in a societies overall well-being. in the 2018 2018 index we've ld at the relationship between economic freedom and a variety of indicators, social well-bein well-being. at the broadest level as you see there's a strong correlation between levels of economic freedom and performance on two

widely used indexes of social well-being. the human development index and the social progress index. looking at some specific areas we see, for example, that children in freer economies are able to stay in school about six years longer on average than children in repressed or mostly unfree societies. this will have a huge impact on those countries future prosperity. economic freedom also promotes better health care and longer life. we compare longevity in countries with less or more economic freedom. the average lifespan in countries at the lower end of the economic freedom scale is about 66 years. in countries with higher levels of economic freedom, average life expectancy is over 76 years. that's ten ten mergers of lifen

average are those whose governments allow them more economic freedom. finally, in this age of concern about global warming or climate change, there's a cautionary note from the data. for those who believe that it is imperative for governments to impose ever greater emissions standards or other environment controls. as with other areas of social progress, it's economic freedom, not government regulations, taxes or subsidies, that is led to the most improvement in environmental conditions. in closing i want to highlight what we call for critical countries for improvement. these are countries with large populations that have taken the first baby steps towards economic freedom, but are still mostly unfree. china, for example, made major reforms under deng xiaoping but

since has promoter hybrid system that combines participation in the global trading system with centralized planning and control of investment. as growth rates slow, the contradiction of such a mixed approach are likely to become more and more difficult to manage. india has abandon the rigid adherence to socialism that characterize the early years of its independence, but it has achieved only modest progress in unwinding its massive bureaucratic state. with only a nine-point advance in economic freedom over 24 years, the pace of reform is too slow for a country that aspires to world economic leadership. russia, the communist policies of the soviet union are largely gone but authoritarian control favoring wealthy oligarchy and

state-owned enterprises have stifled advancement for entrepreneurs and innovators. this results in an overreliance on commodity-based growth. and finally brazil. brazil's economic freedom score this year of only 51.4 is identical to its score in the first edition of the index in 1995. the country has gotten stuck, repeating policy mistakes in what seems to be a never ending cycle of futility. all of these countries are in some respects stuck to each in need of a burst of free-market reform to jumpstart broad-based and sustainable economic growth to the benefit of their large populations. that's the end of my presentation. all of our index results are available online along with supporting data and historical analysis. i'd be happy now to take

questions while we await the arrival of secretary ross. yes, sir. if you would wait for a microphone, we will have a microphone. please identify yourself and i'd be happy to hear your question. >> i see one of your criteria is monetary freedom. can you please explain what the parameters are that you consider to be relevant to monetary freedom? >> yes. we call that monetary freedom. it's basically a measure of inflation in economies over a three-year timeframe. we use a rolling rolling average of inflation that counts current levels more significantly than former levels. but we also look at price controls in the economy and the extent to which governments are anything in the market in a variety of ways to influence prices. yes, sir.

>> peter sandler. i had a question, a couple of your slides were of great interest if these are markets that are readers are invested in. as your most improved, haiti, tunisia and ukraine. can you give us more details? ease of what we call early growth markets. >> yes. i think haiti is a classic case what is extremely low level of economic freedom at this time and so they really scrambling to come out of what's a very poor situation in that country and they suffered of course some earthquakes and other events that have held them back even more. i think the thing that we see long-term is there's a tremendous problem with corruption and lack of the rule of law in a country like that. this year they did make some concerted efforts to improve. and i should point out in this regard that are data is covering the time from mid-2016 the

mid-2017. so would you do with all the bit of a time delay here but we did see progress in there. i think it was more obvious progress in countries like ukraine where we've really seen every strong effort there to improve economic policies and get economic growth going quickly, in spite of a political and security challenges that they're facing from russia right now. tunisia is a case that we paid a lot of attention to. obviously the birthplace of the arab spring that didn't perhaps spring forth as far as we would've liked to see in many of the countries in the region. but they seem to have stabilize the situation there, and they're putting in place policies to open the economy and make better use of foreign investment and

the trade markets that are available to them. so that's what we saw that her. back here. >> where, if any, do take into account when a country uses it economic freedom to spend money to make countries less free? i'm thinking particularly with qatar, which uses some of its money to sponsor states that are trying to reduce economic and political freedom in other countries. >> that's obviously a problem. we measure, what we measure on an evenhanded basis for countries, and were not looking at political developments or even political actions by countries in other countries around the world. that's for others i think to use. qatar is not what i i would caa champion of economic freedom. they scored in i guess the upper half of the middle east region rankings.

i guess we just didn't take a look at what they do with the wealth once they have it. that's a question for others i think. let's go over to the side of the room. back in the back. >> excellent summary. thank you very much. as you know 28 countries are members of european union, and 19 in the eurozone. did you look to see the impact either positive or negative on either of those two institutional regimes? >> well, the european union, i think you have to look at that in the long run. the european union grew out of a desire to eliminate war on the european continent. and for those of us who are -- i'm not quite old enough to remember world war ii, but i certainly do remember its aftermath. the effort in europe overcome

those intercontinental rivalries and establish a peaceful and coordinated regimes there, i think has certainly served that purpose to a pretty large extent. these days they've gone way beyond economic cooperation, and the extent they're trying to form political unity, and i guess the index is not really the right place to comment on that factor. but starting to the extent that they have created a free trade zone within the european continent and a way that the united states of america is a free trade zone, and nafta enlarged even in north american free trade zone, that's all to the good i would say from an economic point of view. but then you have to worry about in europe the bureaucratic regulatory process that brett is not as democratic as it might otherwise be, and see if that's

not in some respects a little bit out of control. i know that's not a very straightforward answer but i think it's a very complicated situation in europe. and the same thing i just said about the european union would all hold for the eurozone as well. when you take control of monetary policy away from individual countries, that can be a problem and hurt them as he tried to adjust or use monetary policy to adjust of the factors of the economy. on the other hand, it seems to impose a certain amount of discipline, at least in theory, of what they can do with deficit spending and getting the debt levels out of control. so again i would say it's a mixed picture. yes, barbara. wait for the microphone, please. >> i just would like to hear a little bit of a review of what criterion you used in evaluating trade freedom.

>> for trade freedom where using mainly the applied tariff rates, not the published tariff rates but weighted according to what products are coming in. so it's a trade weighted average for terrace, and then for nontariff barriers with all kinds of regulations and even things like the extent to which corrupt practices impede trade flows. that's an additional measure for trade freedom. yes, sir. >> probably one of the greatest achievements in the trump administration has been to almost stop the regulatory state here now, are these efforts too much in the infancy for you to put them into account in the ratings of the united states? >> stopped what? >> the regulatory.

>> yes. >> because based on the things we seen in 2017, including the federal register, there's been an enormous sea change in regulations. is it just too early? >> it's one of the most positive achievements of the trump administration so far, in our view. it's bound to have an important, positive impact on trade freedom here in the united states. but it is, in fact, too early for us to of to have been ablee account of those changes in this year's edition of the index. we will be picking that up strongly next year in the index, as well as changes from the tax reform. so there is some hope that the u.s. score will improve, and i would caveat that only with the issue of trade policy, which seems to be going in the opposite direction at this time. it would be very hard for me to predict exactly what will happen to the u.s. score in the year

ahead. yes, sir. >> thanks. i just had a follow-up question of the trade freedom question. to what extent do some of the u.s. policy actions factor into this use score, withdraw from the transpacific partnership, renegotiation of nafta? what actions would into it? was it a decrease? thank you. >> none of his actions have had an impact yet on the score because they come after our cutoff date for the data for this year's edition of the index. but we would anticipate that any new imposition of tears could have some impact on the score. it depends on the extent of those tariffs, of course, and right i would say that's an open question. we got a lot of announcements of proposed actions by the trump

administration and by other countries can sometimes in response and sometimes on their own. i think we need to wait and see what actually happens in terms of the imposition of tariffs and what impact that is on trade flows around the world. then we will be able to judge a better what's actually going on. i see our distinguished yes have arrived so i think that better be the last question. i'd be happy to answer questions after them individually after the program is over. it's my honor now at this point and it is the distinguished president of heritage foundation, kay coles james. she has an extensive background in drafting public policy and leaving in nearly every sector of america's economy, and she brings a wealth of experience to this position. having served on heritage board from 2005-2018, and in the

conservative movement for more than 30 years, during that time she's made conservative solutions are reality at all levels of government, including during her service as a director of the u.s. office of personnel management from 2001-2005. most recently she was the founder and president of the gloucester institute, an organization dedicated to training and nurturing leaders in african-american community. she is a graduate of hampton university, the recipient of numerous honorary degrees, and a best-selling author. most important, are words, she's married to charles james a senior and is a proud mother of three, and grandmother of five. please join me in welcoming kay coles james. [applause] >> thank you so much. thank you all for being here this afternoon. it is absolutely my pleasure to

welcome you to this special event and to introduce our esteemed guests. for 45 years heritage foundation has been dedicated to building an america where freedom, opportunity, prosperity, and civil society flourish. this is not a throwaway line to anyone who works in this building. no, it's our battle cry against the tide of human history. for literally thousands of years the vast majority of people lacked economic freedom and opportunity, and as a result they were condemned to demeaning, dehumanizing lives of poverty, sickness, and sometimes early death. a few people controlled most of the power and most of the wealth, and everyone else suffered for it. thankfully those days are over for more people today than at

any previous time in human history. but we still see instances such as in north korea that serve as a stark reminder of where we've come from and where we could return. if we don't remain dedicated to building a better future. that's what the heritage foundation is all about, and it's why our index of economic freedom is so vitally important. the index chronicles the events of economic freedom and its defeat of poverty and hydration. with detailed analysis rescinded in a user-friendly format, the index has served as the go to resource for policymakers, researchers and students for more than 20 years. it covers 12 freedoms in 186 countries, revealing the essential link between free markets and prosperity.

and as a result the index has inspired positive policy change around the globe, improving the lives of millions of people. economic freedom leads to better health, longer lives, improved education, and cleaner environment. it expands markets and approves standards of living. it brings societies closer together in peaceful cooperation that transcends race, religion, and culture. in sum, the index reveals a powerful truth. government that respect and promote openness and free markets make their citizens lives and the world better. and it's for that reason that we are deeply honored that commerce secretary wilbur ross is with us today. secretary ross is not only an extraordinarily accomplished businessman with degrees from yale and harvard, and a record of generating jobs and

prosperity of more than 100 companies, he's not just a universally acclaimed expert, having been named by bloomberg market as one of the 50 most influential people in global finance, yes, he is even far more than that. and he not only serves as the trump administration principal voice for business, job growth and economic opportunity, he is a staunch lifelong believer in the undeniable truth that inspires our work here at the heritage foundation every day. that is, with freedom and opportunity, people everywhere can rise up from poverty and be empowered to live healthy, productive, and fulfilling lives. i can therefore think of no better guest to speak at this special occasion that our dear friend at the heritage foundation, secretary ross. they do so much for joining us today.

[applause] >> thank you, kay, for the very kind introduction. it reminds me a little bit about henry kissinger one time was delivering a speech, and before it he got a very, very elaborate introduction, following which he merely said, given that introduction i can't wait to hear what i'm about to say. for some 45 years heritage foundation has been a leading advocate for the values we in this room hold firmly, free enterprise, limited government, strong defense, and a prosperous and secure america. it's a pleasure to be here for

the washington launch of the latest index of economic freedom. i'm here today because i believe that next year, and alisa for the next seven odd years, our position as the united states in the index will hopefully continue to improve. as of the june 2017 cutoff date for policy changes to be taken into account, we didn't yet have very many of the deregulatory actions that we now have taken. we didn't have many epa reforms, and we certainly didn't have the largest tax cut and tax reform in history. so we hope that those very specific developments will propel us up in next years and in succeeding years. since the index was created by heritage foundation in the "wall

street journal" in 1995, it's become an indispensable tool in promoting the benefits of economic freedom. it is used by governments, individuals, investors, business is, ngos and the media in capitals and see suites throughout the world. it is a recurring reminder of how important freedom is the individual and collective prosperity. it provides governments, including our own with an objective critique of the economic conditions in each country. it is in these conditions upon which governments are held accountable, increasingly discerning and educated citizens. in short, the index is an

essential service provided by heritage. i congratulate the six economies that earned the top designation of free, with scores of 80 or better, hong kong, singapore, new zealand, switzerland, australia and ireland. it is to say the least disconcerting that the united states is not yet part of this elite group. although globally economic freedom has hit an all-time high. it's imperative that we address the reasons for which our country lags behind the 17 nations that are ranked above us. the good news is that thanks to president trump we believe that our downward slide in the index over the past decade not only has come to a halt, but should be reversing itself.

the united states was one of 102 countries out of 180 who's scores improved in this latest report, but the latest u.s. score of 75.7, about 6/10 of one point above previous report, is the right direction but is coming from a a base that was t the lowest in the indexes history due to no fault of the present administration. it is an indication that after a decade of economic stagnation and decades of overregulation with hit and historical inflection point. 15 months ago president trump took office with a specific agenda to unleash our economy and improve job opportunities for millions of americans. a key element of that agenda was

lifting the heavy yoke of the government from the backs of american businesses and workers. as i speak, the administration is continuing to review and eliminate outdated and ineffectual rules and regulations whose costs in time and money vastly exceed their benefits. the president has mandated that for every new federal rule created, at least two of equal value must be repealed. in fact, we have done better than that by a very wide margin. in the last year the president repealed a whopping 22 regulations for every new one issued. just today i and 14 other cabinet members signed and

m.o.u. among us implementing the one federal decision framework for environmental review and authorization process for major infrastructure projects. that's one of the areas that is of the most fiendishly regulated in the country. you may have seen the chart that i have in my office. it's a little taller than i am, and what it contains is the 120 different steps that someone must go through to get a permit for a major infrastructure project. with that many steps it's a wonder anything ever gets built in this country. it takes years and years to get the permits. one private sector company is a horrible example. it's a good company but the things they've gone through is

horrible. they had spent several hundred million dollars in ten years working to get permit to open what will probably be the world's largest open pit copper mine ever. they still don't have the permission to do it. they are a big company. they can afford the hundreds of millions of dollars. they can afford to ten years, but think how much better off they and everybody would be if they could put that extra few hundred million into projects rather than into paperwork. because that's what it's been, paperwork and litigation have been the horrible things. in addition to deregulation, the tax burden that has stifled growth has also been lifted. as you know last december president trump sign the tax cuts and jobs act of 2017.

president trump has reduced taxes by $5.5 trillion over the next decade. the biggest tax cuts and reforms in american history. and for the first time in more than 30 years, u.s. companies have competitive tax rate that will bring prosperity to millions of americans. we know that it is the private sector that drives the prosperity, not the federal government. since the reduction of the corporate tax rate on american businesses from 35% to 21%, more than 440 large camping companie announced new investments, raises and bonuses that are directly benefiting more than 4.5 million american workers comp and all working families

get a well-deserved raise now that they are keeping more of their hard earned money. the new tax law changes our present, or former, worldwide system to a territorial system. thereby ending dependently on companies headquartered in the united states, and it's making their domestic operations more globally competitive. in addition to tax cuts and deregulation, we are taking a new look at our trade relationships with the intent of reinvigorating u.s. manufacturing production and output. we are working to end years of one-sided and unbalanced trade deals that disadvantage u.s. businesses and workers. other companies simply have refused to play by the rules.

there continues of dumping of the government subsidize products has decimated essential american industry. it threatens our national security and it saddles our nation global trade deficits that exceed half a trillion dollars annually. these deficits are draining well from our nation. i'm proud of the fact that president trump has forcefully stood up to the interest of american industries that are essential to our national security. we believe that trade should be fair, free, reciprocal, and free, free, free. but free trade is almost like the unicorn in the garden. people talk about it but it's very, very hard to find it nowadays. our terrace are among the lowest

of any major country in the world -- tariffs -- are among the lowest of any major country in the world and we have the least in the way of nontariff trade barriers. yet american exporters are plagued by every type of tariff and nontariff barrier thrown against them even by our most trusted allies. davos recently had come house on a panel with the direct of the day btl, the world trade organization. to start things off i asked him the question, i said, if the united states is not the least protectionist make country, please tell me who he is. he had no answer. so we are using all of our available tools to ensure a level playing field for our country's companies, workers,

farmers and ranchers. and we already getting results. our new deal with the republic of korea is lowering barriers to automakers and other key american industries. a major win for the cause of economic freedom. maybe it will inadvertently push the republic of korea up in your freedom index next year. and we can also see the impact of our economic policies on the whole world. after a decade of stagnation we are finally growing at about 3% again, something the naysayers said could never happen. the number of americans collecting unemployment benefits is at a 45 year low. consumer confidence is at a 14 year high.

2 million americans have moved off food stamps and onto work roles. and since election day, american companies have created nearly 3 million new jobs. manufacturing sector is particularly showing renewed strength. and last year more than a quarter of a million new manufacturing jobs were created in the united states, compared to 100,000 manufacturing jobs lost in the final year of the obama administration. new factories are opening throughout the country. during the first nine months of 2017, the united states experienced a net edition of more than 4000 new manufacturing plants. after decades of industrial

decline, we have finally turned the corner. none of these positive things were happening before the election of president trump. so judge him by the results. judge him by the results, not my mannerisms, not by catchphrases, not by 160 character tweets. judge the administration by its results. president trump is unleashing american ingenuity. now of course there's more to do, a lot more to do. this administration is next going to be focused on reducing government spending, something that will require more, much-needed reforms. in the last spending that was quite unfortunate. the democrats used the nation's in need for the military to have

increased funding as an opportunity to load up the bill with their own wasteful spending. but as the president said, he will never sign such a bill again, never. we will also continue our march to cut unneeded regulations. we look forward to working with heritage to get the united states to where it belongs, at the top of the economic freedom index. again, thank you for inviting me. me. it's a pleasure to be here, and i gather now we're going to have a little fireside chat. [applause] >> shortly we'll go live to the u.s. senate where lawmakers will resume consideration of the nomination of mike pompeo for secretary of state. he currently is the u.s. cia

director. we are expecting a procedural vote tomorrow as well as a procedural vote tomorrow on the nominee to be u.s. ambassador to germany. live coverage now of the u.s. senate here on c-span2. the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. eternal father, strong to save,