Tag: Polaski
Editor’s Note: Below is an excerpt of testimony submitted by Sandra Polaski to the United States of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade in May 2019 regarding the US-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement. Official estimates of the impact of the US-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA) on US employment and wages suggest that there will be […]
The World Trade Organization (WTO) came into existence in 1995, replacing the 50-year-old trade regime known as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) that had governed trade among capitalist countries in the geopolitical context of the Cold War. The new regime was emblematic of a moment in time, when global economic integration was […]
At the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) in June 2022, trade ministers representing the 164 member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) met for the first time in four years amid an ongoing global pandemic and geopolitical forces that threaten to pull the global economy into separate blocs. A new policy brief by Sandra Polaski, […]
Trade has not always been such a controversial topic, and it worked well for the US and many other countries for most of the post-war era. However, in the last few decades, trade has become a key pivot point in politics and elections in the US. This is partly because of the transformation of the […]
By Sandra Polaski & Jeronim Capaldo The Hill, June 2019. Enforcement of Labor Obligations in the USMCA
Sandra Polaski Statement Submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade, May 22, 2019.
It is no surprise that calls to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) resonated with so many Americans. Numerous studies have documented the negative effects of NAFTA on certain groups, regions and the environment in the US, Mexico and Canada. However, the resulting United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) will not restore innovation, industrial jobs, […]
Over the last two decades, many governments have incorporated clauses in free trade agreements that commit treaty members to promoting good labor and environmental laws as well as outcomes. The logic is that countries should not gain competitive advantage in trade by undermining or failing to protect workers’ rights and the environment. The commitments typically […]