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United States
Opinion
Robert Delaney
Robert Delaney

On Balance | Katherine Tai running out of time for US trade deal focus to deliver for poor communities

  • Tai is finding some success as she puts economic equity ahead of market access in her negotiations, but two years is not long in the world of US policy
  • Her work is on increasingly thin ice as concrete results are few and Republicans unite behind Ron DeSantis for next year’s election

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Rowhouses in the Port Richmond neighbourhood of Philadelphia sit in ruins on January 29 after several collapsed in a series of gas explosions. US Trade Representative Katherine Tai is keeping people in economically depressed areas such as Philadelphia and Baltimore in mind in her approach to trade deals, but time is running out for her to deliver for them. Photo: TNS
Robert Delaney
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai appears to be setting records in terms of travel as she pushes a trade agenda that prioritises workers and the environment. An appearance in Philadelphia last week reinforced how determined she is to put economic equity ahead of market access.
It was a laudable gambit that has attracted buy-in from more countries than most would have expected when she secured her role nearly two years ago. Unfortunately, the two years remaining in US President Joe Biden’s first term is not a lot of time in the world of Washington policy agendas.
The shunning of market access until the rest of the world comes to a kumbaya moment on trade is just political aspiration masquerading as a trade agenda because this won’t happen in this time frame.
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Tai’s vision recognises that free trade might have given the American consumer cheap toasters and sweatshirts at prices that have barely budged in 30 years and have actually come down in many cases, as manufacturers found cheaper factories offshore. However, it has also led to deep socioeconomic disparities that have brought the US to the brink of civil war.

Speaking at the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia last week, she delivered one of the most stirring defences yet of this new approach. She explained that for every international trip, she also travels somewhere in the United States to better understand the impact of US trade policies.

US Trade Representative Katherine Tai speaks at the US Capitol in Washington on February 25, 2021. She has been instrumental in forming the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity, with the United States and 11 other Western Hemisphere countries participating. Photo: TNS
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai speaks at the US Capitol in Washington on February 25, 2021. She has been instrumental in forming the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity, with the United States and 11 other Western Hemisphere countries participating. Photo: TNS

“I have to have a very nuanced and expansive understanding of who is the United States, what are the component parts of our economy and what are the communities that I’m representing,” she said.

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