IFPTE Hails USTR Ambassador Tai's Commitment to Worker-Centered Trade Policy and White House Progress on Supply Chain Review
This week, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai delivered an address at the AFL-CIO in which she outlined the Biden Administration's approach to a trade policy that gives workers a voice in U.S. trade policy, advances economic security along with racial and gender equity, and engages trade partners to raise wages and labor standards.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka introduced Ambassador Tai by remarking on the decades of orthodox free trade policy that has failed to improve the lives of working people in the U.S. and instead created a "race to the bottom on wages and labor standards, environmental destruction, and runaway inequality."
Ambassador Tai's comments to labor leaders reiterated President Biden's promise to "focus on rebuilding the American economy and the American middle class before he enters into any new trade deals." She added that the Biden Administration is also working "to promote democracy labor rights, and economic security" among U.S. trading partners, and engaging with allies to "create high standard trade agreements that empower workers and prevent other countries from violating labor rights to gain an unfair advantage in the global market." Her remarks also committed the Biden Administration to taking bold steps at the World Trade Organization to reform its dispute resolution process, provide greater transparency, meaningfully include labor standards, and ensure trade rules raise living standards.
Earlier in the week, the White House released its report on the 100-day review of the U.S. supply chains in four critical manufacturing product segments. The report is part of President Biden's Executive Order on America's Supply Chains, which also directs a review of six critical industrial base sectors to be complete by February 2022. The Biden Administration's attention to supporting and reinforcing domestic manufacturing, supply chains, and reshoring production that are critical to national and economic security reinforces Ambassador Tai’s comments on a worker-centered trade policy.
IFPTE applauds the U.S. Trade Representative's comments and the Biden Administration's affirmative steps to realign U.S. trade policy with the interests of working people. The Biden Administration’s trade policy makes significant strides towards meeting IFPTE's framework for trade policy that works for all workers and their communities, for the environment, and for the public interest.