Here
is a post laying out Elizabeth Warren's main policies and ideas about trade. Here are a few main features:
Here is a broad summary:
Quote:
We need to completely transform our approach to trade. America enters into trade negotiations with enormous leverage because America is the world’s most attractive market. As President, I won’t hand America’s leverage to big corporations to use for their own narrow purposes — I’ll use it to create and defend good American jobs, raise wages and farm income, combat climate change, lower drug prices, and raise living standards worldwide. We will engage in international trade — but on our terms and only when it benefits American families.
She distinguishes her view of trade from those who support free trade or Trump:
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Unlike the insiders, I don’t think “free trade” deals that benefit big multinational corporations and international capital at the expense of American workers are good simply because they open up markets. Trade is good when it helps American workers and families — when it doesn’t, we need to change our approach. And unlike Trump, while I think tariffs are an important tool, they are not by themselves a long-term solution to our failed trade agenda and must be part of a broader strategy that this Administration clearly lacks.
Warren believes that the current trade negotiation process is corrupt and undemocratic. Thus, she proposes opening it up by
-Requiring trade negotiators to publicly disclose drafts and provide the public with an opportunity to comment.
-Expanding labor, environmental, regional, and consumer representation in trade negotiations.
She also believes we should shift our focus in trade negotiations from lowering tariffs to requiring higher regulatory standards:
Quote:
With certain important exceptions, we live in a low-tariff world. Modern trade agreements are less about the mutual reduction of tariffs and more about establishing regulatory standards for everything from worker rights to pollution to patent protections.
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I am establishing a set of standards countries must meet as a precondition for any trade agreement with America. And I will renegotiate any agreements we have to ensure that our existing trade partners meet those standards as well.
These preconditions include:
-labor rights
-human rights
-religious freedom
-compliance with Paris Agreement and other climate goals
-elimination of fossil fuel subsidies
-Ratify Convention on Combating Bribery
-compliance with tax treaties
-not be classified as meriting attention for currency practices
Finally, a few proposals to strengthen enforcement by getting rid of ISDS and more aggressively pursuing noncompliance.