A memo to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump

New Haven

I'M WRITING to you both as presumptive presidential candidates for America's two major political parties. The focus is on trade policy - a subject that has aroused so much emotion among the electorate and looms so important in both your campaigns, contributing to the growth of the United States and world economies, to jobs here and abroad, and to the way America engages with the rest of the world.

As seemingly endless and shallow as our political process is for picking nominees for the highest office in the land, the primaries do allow big issues to come to the fore in a way that might otherwise not happen - at least in a peaceful manner. And so it has been with trade.