Trade Policy Priorities through the Eyes of Congressional Democrats
In substance if not style, the Trump administration’s protectionist trade policies have looked conspicuously like those espoused by congressional Democrats over the past 25 years. Now that Trump has laid bare the economic, social, and geopolitical folly of this approach, Democrats may be ready to begin returning to their pro‐trade roots. What are the Democrats’ wishes for U.S. trade policy? Are they willing to remind Americans why being for trade is in their best interest? Join us on December 2nd to hear from prominent congressional Democrats about reclaiming Congress’ constitutional authority over trade policy, repealing tariffs, recommitting to multilateralism and the rule of law, and promoting domestic actions that improve American competitiveness.
Trade Policy in a Biden Administration: Back to Normal, or into the Great Unknown?
Trump’s trade policy team promoted protectionism and unilateralism, undermined the international rule of law, and shifted power from the legislative to the executive branch. The Biden administration will therefore inherit a messy legacy on trade and will have difficult decisions to make going forward. To what extent will it want to, and to what extent can it, return to the trade policy situation that existed prior to Trump? It will take many months to get full answers to these questions, but this event will kick off the discussion of the direction of trade policy in a Biden administration.
The Pandemic Does Not Justify Protectionism or Deglobalization
Beyond its severe toll on human life and public health, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed vulnerabilities in routines that we have long assumed were reliable and safe. Reevaluating these routines will help us find new and better ways of doing things, but only if we leave some bad ideas in the dustbin. As Cato scholars Daniel J. Ikenson and Simon Lester explain in this Pandemics and Policy issue, one of these ideas is that the pandemic is proof of the failures of globalization. Instead, they show how without the global economy, America will be poorer, more vulnerable, and less resilient.
Experts
Subtopics
- Agriculture
- Antidumping, CVD, Safeguards
- General U.S. Trade Policy
- Globalization, Value Chains, FDI
- Jones Act
- Manufacturing and Industrial Policy
- Services Trade and Non-Tariff Barriers
- Trade Agreements and the WTO
- Trade Myths
- Trade Policy Prescriptions
- Trade Politics
- Trade Theory, Philosophy, and Morality
- Trans-Atlantic Trade
- Trans-Pacific Trade