{"id":1166,"date":"2021-12-03T14:32:39","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T14:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/?p=1166"},"modified":"2024-06-10T14:33:38","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T14:33:38","slug":"president-bidens-trade-policy-continuity-and-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/2021\/12\/03\/president-bidens-trade-policy-continuity-and-change\/","title":{"rendered":"President Biden\u2019s Trade Policy: Continuity and Change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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\"college
\nCenter for Policy Studies
\nPublic Affairs Discussion Group<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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President Biden\u2019s Trade Policy: Continuity and Change<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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\"headshot\"<\/p>\n

Juscelino Colares, J.D. – Schott-van den Eynden Professor of Business Law<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
Friday December 3, 2021
\n12:30-1:30 p.m.
\nOnline Zoom Meeting<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Dear Colleagues:<\/p>\n

Greetings, and I hope that you and yours are healthy and safe – and can stay that way.<\/p>\n

As part of being careful to stay safe,\u00a0the \u201cFriday Lunch,\u201d a CWRU tradition since 1989, continues on Zoom<\/strong>. We work to present experts from campus and sometimes beyond to discuss important issues for the university, local community, nation or the international stage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking Forward to 2022!<\/h3>\n

This is the last program of 2021. We will meet again on January 14, 2022.<\/p>\n

I do not yet know if it will make sense to try to return to in-person gatherings. Please feel free to send me your thoughts at<\/span>\u00a0joseph.white@case.edu<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

I hope everyone who gets this newsletter had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and has a happy and a healthy holidays and a great start to the new year.<\/span><\/p>\n

This Week\u2019s Program<\/h3>\n

We end the Fall, 2021 semester with a look at the Biden administration\u2019s policies on one of the signature themes of the Trump administration.<\/strong><\/p>\n

From World War II until very recently elites in both political parties, backed by an overwhelming consensus among economists, have viewed measures to expand trade as a forward-looking policy that would be good for the U.S. economy and for U.S. leadership in the world. This agreement peaked in the 1990s. President Clinton collaborated with congressional Republican leaders to implement the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that had been mostly negotiated by the George H.W. Bush Administration, and to pass the new General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). He later supported China\u2019s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) created by the GATT. Clinton saw trade expansion as a way to create markets for U.S. products, and hoped (vainly) to compensate workers who lost their jobs with government spending such as Trade Adjustment Assistance.<\/span>\u00a0Lael Brainard<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 now President Biden\u2019s nominee to be vice-chair of the Federal Reserve – described the Clinton administration\u2019s record on trade as \u201c<\/span>very strong<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 perhaps not compared with the economist\u2019s ideal of free trade but certainly compared with previous administrations facing similar political constraints.\u201d<\/p>\n

This elite consensus began to fall apart because of events. Most obviously, it became hard for some rather<\/span>\u00a0eminent economists who had been supporters of expanded trade<\/span><\/a>\u00a0not to notice that more and more imports were from low-wage countries and therefore were blowing out American manufacturing \u2013 so having major distributional effects within the U.S. This had to be a particular concern for Democrats, with their labor union base that historically had been particularly involved in manufacturing but was swiftly shrinking. Unions had opposed NAFTA and did not want further opening of their jobs to foreign competition.<\/p>\n

But the Obama administration continued trying to expand trade through measures such as negotiating the draft Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). In contrast, Donald Trump made opposition to trade agreements, such as NAFTA and TPP, a core theme of his campaign. Labor\/left economists such as Jeff Faux<\/span>\u00a0argued<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that the Clinton\/Obama record on trade was a major reason Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. It is hard to believe that it was not a factor in states like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration did try to deliver on its promises to improve the terms of trade in ways that would help American workers.<\/span>\u00a0It imposed tariffs<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in the name of national security or \u201cfairness\u201d on a broad range of products, especially from China. It<\/span>\u00a0withdrew from the TPP<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(which nevertheless was signed by the remaining nations). It claimed to have negotiated a significant trade agreement with China (though<\/span>\u00a0the claim was highly questionable<\/span><\/a>). Most visibly, Trump\u2019s administration negotiated a new U.S.\u2013Mexico\u2013Canada Agreement (U.S.M.C.A.) to replace NAFTA. He accepted changes in his original agreement that were promoted by congressional Democrats, and therefore led Ohio\u2019s Senator Sherrod Brown to comment that, \u201c<\/span>I never thought I\u2019d be voting for a trade agreement during my Senate tenure that I wrote a big part of<\/span><\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Biden inherited this rather mixed bag of a record, along with some serious uncertainty about how to proceed. In spite of the labor base, it\u2019s hard for a Democratic presidency to follow President Trump\u2019s policies in part because they were Trump\u2019s policies and in part because the substance was not all that impressive. But the economic and political cases for continuing to try to expand trade by negotiating new deals is clearly weaker than it seemed to President Clinton or even Obama.<\/p>\n

How, then, is President Biden addressing the trade issue? There is so much else going on that his responses have not received so much attention. Yet it is a fundamental question for economic policy. And rather complicated. Fortunately we have an extremely expert scholar of trade regulation on our faculty to talk about this. Professor Colares has litigated trade cases before federal agencies, courts, and trade panels. He joined the roster of NAFTA trade dispute panelists in 2013. Every year he organizes a Trade Law Fall Update conference, and he recently published a book on<\/span>\u00a0Restructuring Trade Agreements<\/span><\/a><\/em>. Please join us as he shares perspectives on one of the most important issues for both economic and foreign policy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Signing In<\/h3>\n

This semester’s discussions will begin at 12:30 p.m., the usual time. The meeting will be set up as from Noon to 2:00 p.m., so people are not all signing in at the same time and to allow for the discussion to run a bit long.\u00a0Each week we will send out this newsletter with information about the topic. It will also include a link to register (for free) for the discussion.<\/strong>\u00a0Every Monday the same information will be posted on our website:<\/span>\u00a0fridaylunch.case.edu<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you register, you will automatically receive from the Zoom system the link to join the meeting. This week’s link for registration is:<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/cwru.zoom.us\/meeting\/register\/tJUudOuqpzIjG918Uq3Etd4ppsOArs48Xkz4<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.<\/p>\n

Please e-mail<\/span>\u00a0padg@case.edu<\/span><\/a>\u00a0if you have questions about how the Zoom version of the Friday Lunch will work or any other suggestions. Or call at 216 368-2426 and we’ll try to get back to you. We are very pleased to be partnering this semester with the<\/span>\u00a0Siegal Lifelong Learning Program<\/span><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to share information about the discussions.<\/p>\n

Best wishes for safety and security for you and yours,<\/p>\n

Joe White
\nLuxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies<\/span><\/p>\n

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About Our Guest<\/span><\/h3>\n

Before joining the CWRU faculty,\u00a0Juscelino Colares<\/strong>, clerked for the Hon. Jean-Louis Debr\u00e9, chief justice of France\u2019s Constitutional Court (2008-09 term) and practiced at Dewey Ballantine, LLP in Washington, D.C., where he litigated trade cases before federal agencies, federal courts, and NAFTA panels. Colares has served as chair of the University Faculty Senate and associate dean for Global Legal Studies.<\/p>\n

A native of Brazil and naturalized citizen of the United States, Colares has been appointed by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to serve on the U.S. Roster of North American Free Trade Agreement (Chapter Nineteen) Panelists since 2013. This spring, USTR appointed him to the first U.S. Roster of United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement Panelists. For the last six years, Colares has organized a series of Trade Law Fall Updates, a practitioner-oriented gathering of leading trade lawyers, federal judges, and trade agency officials that has attracted much visibility to CWRU Law, as well as opportunities for his students and recent graduates. Besides trade law, Colares teaches civil procedure, conflict of laws, and a variety of courses on business and regulatory law.<\/p>\n

Winner of the 2018 Faculty Research Award, Colares is the author of more than 35 articles and book chapters, and, more recently, the book, titled\u00a0Restructuring Trade Agreements<\/em>\u00a0(Wolters Kluwer 2021). His work has appeared in leading peer-review journals and law reviews, including the\u00a0American Law and Economics Review<\/em>,\u00a0Journal of Empirical Legal Studies<\/em>,\u00a0Journal of International Economic Law<\/em>,\u00a0Journal of World Trade<\/em>,\u00a0Jurimetrics<\/em>,\u00a0Columbia Journal of European Law<\/em>,\u00a0Cornell International Law Journal<\/em>;\u00a0Georgetown Journal of International Law<\/em>; and\u00a0Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law<\/em>.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Visit the\u00a0Public Affairs Discussion Group Web Site.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Center for Policy Studies | Mather House 111 | 11201 Euclid Avenue |
\nCleveland, Ohio 44106-7109 |\u00a0Phone: 216.368.6730 |\u00a0padg@case.edu<\/u><\/span><\/a>\u00a0|
\nPart of the:\u00a0College of Arts and Sciences<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2021 Case Western Reserve University |
\nCleveland, Ohio 44106 | 216.368.2000 |\u00a0legal notice<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Center for Policy Studies
\nPublic Affairs Discussion Group<\/strong><\/p>\n

President Biden\u2019s Trade Policy: Continuity and Change<\/strong><\/p>\n

Juscelino Colares, J.D. – Schott-van den Eynden Professor of Business Law<\/strong><\/p>\n

Friday December 3, 2021
\n12:30-1:30 p.m.
\nOnline Zoom Meeting<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Colleagues:<\/p>\n

Greetings, and I hope that you and yours are healthy and safe – and can stay that way.<\/p>\n

As part of being careful to stay safe,\u00a0the \u201cFriday Lunch,\u201d a CWRU tradition since 1989, continues on Zoom<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Continue reading… President Biden\u2019s Trade Policy: Continuity and Change<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1166"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1166"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1167,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1166\/revisions\/1167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}