Will the Revamped US Trade Policy Be Ready for Global Challenges?

The Biden administration recently shared an ambitious vision for a ‘worker-centered’ trade policy to tackle the global race-to-the-bottom, build resilience in domestic supply chains and strengthen trust in the multilateral trading system.

Concomitantly, a broad range of World Trade Organization members have been pushing for deeper reform within the international trade architecture for some time now. As a recent research paper from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) outlined, the current trade regime has yielded key trends that are ripe for reform: the deepening of inequalities, the growing dominance of big firms, the scant economic benefits of liberalization and enduring boom-bust cycles. The paper explains that the architecture of trade and investment rules has also served as a barrier to the ambitious industrial transformation required to decarbonize the global economy and keep warming below 1.5C.

Achieving climate, employment and development goals will depend on a reform agenda that unites the interests of advanced and developing economies – creating decent jobs, locking in pathways to deep decarbonization and diversifying and strengthening regional resilience. Such an alignment could deliver mutual benefits and advance the stated ambitions of the revamped US trade policy.

What then should the key priorities be for the US Trade Representative Katherine Tai and her team to secure domestic and international goals? Will the new US trade approach support the ambitions of developing countries in the global trade system? And what challenges are likely to hamper progress?

On Monday, Saturday 27, 2021 from 10:00-11:00 AM EDT, join the Boston University Global Development Policy Center and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for a webinar discussion on how a revamped US trade policy could rise to global challenges.

Speakers

-Richard Kozul-Wright, Director, Globalization and Development Strategies, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

- Xolelwa Mlumbi-Peter, Ambassador, South Africa Mission to the WTO

- Damon Silvers, Director of Policy and Special Counsel, American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)

- Todd Tucker, Director, Governance Studies, Roosevelt Institute

- Kevin P. Gallagher (Moderator), Director, Boston University Global Development Policy Center