Monday, July 29, 2019

She has a plan for that

[Elizabeth Warren released a] sweeping trade agenda, posted on Medium ahead of a town hall in Toledo, Ohio, on Monday evening, [that] channels many of the critiques of American trade policy from the left over the past several decades, especially from environmental and labor groups.

[...]

Warren, a fierce opponent of TPP during the Obama administration, believes that the backlash to globalization is deep and cuts across both parties. As a result, she is advocating a trade policy that, while less tariff-centric, in many ways goes further than Trump.

[...]

[Candidate Bernie] Sanders has promoted his record on trade in campaign videos and pledged not to appoint trade representatives from the corporate sector. Kamala Harris’ views on trade are less clear but, earlier this year, advisers suggested she embrace free trade to contrast herself with Sanders and Warren, according to The New York Times. The only Democratic presidential candidate who so far has made past free trade agreements like the TPP a centerpiece of his agenda is longshot former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.).

[...]

Warren’s plan, however, is the most detailed of any candidate's so far. [...] Warren focuses on using trade as a tool to tackle climate change and other environmental issues, offering a stark contrast to the Trump administration.

[...]

Warren focuses on using trade as a tool to tackle climate change and other environmental issues, offering a stark contrast to the Trump administration.Warren’s plans list nine separate criteria a country would have to meet before negotiating a trade deal with the U.S. Those standards include upholding and enforcing the labor rights laid out by the International Labour Organization, eliminating all domestic fossil fuel subsidies, fulfilling commitments from the Paris Climate Agreement, not running afoul of the State Department’s Country Reports on Human Rights, and not being on the Treasury Department’s monitoring list for manipulative currency practices.

[...]

Warren would attempt to impose a “border carbon adjustment” — an additional fee on imports made with carbon-intensive processes.

[...]

Warren wrote that she would only seek expedited trade authority after unanimous approval from labor, consumer, rural and regional advisory committees and would let more congressional committees review such authority. These reforms would significantly slow the trade negotiation process but also bring in voices that Warren believes have been excluded from the process.

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The requirements would apply not only to new trade deals but to existing treaties that Warren pledges to renegotiate.

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She and her team think Trump has misdiagnosed the problem. Trump’s assertion that other countries are taking advantage of the U.S. means his solution revolves around hiring tough negotiators and punishment in the form of tariffs, Warren’s team says. She, by contrast, sees multinational corporations and their influence on trade negotiations as the main culprit.

  Politico
I think she's right.
The trade agenda is the third plan that Warren has released under her “economic patriotism” platform. The first two called for rebuilding American manufacturing with a focus on green jobs and rewriting rules governing Wall Street.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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