Peterson Institute for International Economics

The Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) is a Washington think tank whose trade and sanctions research ranks among the most cited in US policy circles. Its analysis is a reference point for the economic questions raised by events such as Strait of Hormuz-driven US inflation and the sanctions architecture targeting Chinese refineries that buy Iranian crude , even when PIIE is not the primary source named in an individual report.

PIIE has published extensively on secondary-sanctions effectiveness and on the economic costs of oil-supply disruption to advanced economies. Its work on China trade competitiveness bears directly on whether OFAC's secondary-sanctions programme against Chinese refineries can be enforced without rupturing the dollar-clearing system, a live question since MOFCOM's blocking statute named five refineries it would shield from that enforcement .

On the Iran conflict's economic dimensions, PIIE represents the internationalist, free-trade wing of Washington economics: sceptical of sanctions overreach, attentive to the systemic risks of fragmenting dollar-denominated trade, and often critical of enforcement approaches that cause more collateral disruption than targeted pressure. Its analysis tends to surface as a counterweight to Treasury-maximalist positions in Congressional testimony and bipartisan trade policy debates.