US trade policy agenda being scuttled by politics

US Trade Representative Katherine Tai's recent appearances before the House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee provided an opportunity for the Biden administration to advance the president's trade policies and allow US lawmakers to debate the issue.

In general, President Joe Biden has refrained from placing his administration's trade policies at the top of his agenda, even before the war in Ukraine has become the central focus of the policy discourse in Washington, followed by the surging inflation and the continuing threat of the pandemic.

The major reason for the lack of an ambitious trade policy on the part of the White House has to do with politics. Members of the Democratic Party's powerful progressive wing continue to resist the idea of new US initiatives on the international trade front; in particular, they are opposed to the introduction of new trade agreements that by definition would amount to an effort to liberalise international trade.