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.