Rethinking Trade with Lori Wallach

This new Rethinking Trade podcast episode is not a break from election anxiety, but can help explain the current situation…     Lori talks with Dan Kaufman about his recent New York Times Magazine story, "How NAFTA Broke American Politics." It examines the long-lasting impacts of the trade agreement on U.S. communities and politics nationwide.    Lori and Dan do a deep dive into Kaufman’s recent October article. Listen now for conversation about the human and political cost of NAFTA, particularly in Wisconsin, and the broader impact on American workers and our politics.    Dan Kaufman is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and author of the acclaimed book The Fall of Wisconsin about the labor revolution spurred by ring attacks on union rights there.

The imitable Zephyr Teachout wrote a fantastic piece that everyone seems to be reading about why tariffs and the trade issue play such an outsized role in elections and how Trump has set a tariff trap to try to ensnare the Democrats. In our latest episode of the Rethinking Trade podcast, Lori Wallach sits down with the renowned Fordham law professor. The discussion is especially interesting because Zephyr ran for Congress in a swing district in 2016 and saw her lead — along with Hillary Clinton's — disappear as Trump realized the power of the trade attack. Even if you don’t have time to read the piece (and you should, and we have it on our website) this short, but powerful conversation is fascinating.

In this episode of Rethinking Trade, Lori Wallach breaks down the facts about tariffs—how they work, who pays them, and their impact on consumer prices. With tariffs back in the news, Lori explains the difference between targeted tariffs and across the board tariffs. Tune in NOW to get the full picture.

Rapacious European corporations were top users of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) tribunals. For decades, they extracted billions from taxpayers worldwide, attacking local laws and suing governments before ISDS tribunals of three corporate attorneys.   So, it was big news when the European Union recently exited one of the world’s largest ISDS agreements -- the Energy Charter Treaty.   In the latest episode of the Rethinking Trade podcast, Lori Wallach is joined by two people who know the inside story: Cecilia Olivet, advisor to the Left Group in the European Parliament, and Fabian Flues, of the German-based organization Powershift. Here’s a hint: When European domestic climate policies got ISDS attacked, the Dutch, German and other ISDS-booster governments had to shell out billions. And climate activists turned up the, um, heat. Nothing like being on the receiving end of ISDS – and domestic grassroots campaigns - to change opinions…

Did you know that states across the country are taking steps right now to regulate artificial intelligence (AI), protect kids' online safety, guarantee us the right to repair our phones, cars and other stuff, as well as safeguard data privacy?   But this progress could soon be wiped out thanks to Big Tech’s stealthy "digital trade" agenda.   In the latest episode of our Rethinking Trade podcast, our colleagues ⁠Daniel Rangel ⁠and ⁠Katie Hettinga ⁠explain how more than 100 state-level tech bills could be preempted by international trade rules being pushed by Big Tech lobbyists.   Katie and Daniel spent months researching how these hidden provisions could undo the vital protections being enacted by state lawmakers, and have now put this information at your fingertips. Check out the tracker at www.rethinktrade.org/digitaltrade.

It was a busy Friday on Capitol Hill, as the Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on digital trade. If you haven't heard about "digital trade", the name that Big Tech lobbyists have given to a backdoor to try and tie the hands of Congress and regulators to evade privacy requirements/anti-discrimination online rules and shut down AI oversight, this podcast is for you. Don't forget to also read our international preemption paper for further background, and stay tuned for our forthcoming podcast on our states tracker, which goes into Big Tech's digital trade agenda at the state level.

In this special breaking news episode of the Rethinking Trade podcast, Lori Wallach explains today's White House actions on the #deminimis loophole. Remember: please visit our previous episodes on the de minimis loophole to understand just how e-commerce platforms like #Shein and #Temu are exploiting the loophole, and what it means for you.

How many times has your phone, car, or whatever broken and you or your local repair shop can’t get the part or the software update to fix it? You’re told the only options are to pay an obscene amount to a dealer or manufacturer, or prematurely replace the item.People in states across the country are fighting back by enacting “right to repair” laws. But corporate lobbyists hope to rig trade agreements with rules that forbid access to the information that we need to fix our stuff.Join Lori Wallach and special guest Nathan Proctor, Senior Director of the Campaign for Right to Repair at PIRG, as they examine the right to repair and how trade deals could undermine it. Learn how the digitalization of everything gave companies new ways to monopolize who can fix stuff. Nathan explains how we can restore these basic rights Americans have long had.  Lori reveals how companies are trying to lock in new corporate powers by slipping vague and non-trade-related rules into “trade” deals.

Hello, friends! We’ve got a new podcast episode and it’s a bit different!A veritable OG trade crew got together for a kick-ass discussion on "A New Trade Policy to Break Up Corporate Power” at our recent Anti-Monopoly Summit. How OG? The discussion is led by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) the House Trade Working Groups chair (and House Approps Ranking Member!) and features Thea Lee (Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs, Department of Labor) and Scott Paul (President, Alliance for American Manufacturing) and our own Lori Wallach, Director, AELP's Rethink Trade. These folks first met battling against NAFTA in 1992! They have unique insights into how decades of neoliberal hyperglobalization concentrated power among a few dominant corporations and undermined workers, small businesses, and our national resilience and security.But perhaps the best part is that they discuss how trade policy tools—tariffs, conditioning market access on labor and other standards, supply management instruments, and more— can create industrial policy that curbs corporate power and empowers workers and smaller businesses. After hearing the discussion, it will be crystal clear why replacing pro-monopoly trade rules is critical to enhancing economic justice, our economic resilience and security and battle climate chaos. Listen now!

In this special breaking news episode of Rethinking Trade, Lori Wallach breaks down President Biden's new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and solar panels. Tune in to understand the implications of these tariffs, and the rationale behind them. Spoiler: these measures are crucial for combating unfair trade practices and ensuring supply chain resilience.

Our latest Rethinking Trade podcast episode is out now, and it's a special one. Lori Wallach sits down with Arthur Stamoulis, the Executive Director of Citizens Trade Campaign and Trade Justice Education Fund, to talk the past, present, and future of the trade justice movement in the United States. Lori and Arthur take us on a speedy tour through the last 30 years of the U.S. fight for fair trade policies and the evolution of the Biden administration’s push for worker-centered trade agreements. Whether trade and climate sanity, unsafe and fake de minimis imports, forced labor goods, or geopolitics has newly brought you to the debate, or you’re a NAFTA veteran, this episode offers new information, including on where go from here.   Spoiler alert: Arthur and the diverse Citizens Trade coalition has accomplished a ton and is ready for more!

In our latest breaking news segment for Rethinking Trade, Lori Wallach discusses the latest developments on Capitol Hill. De minimis is a trade loophole that we've discussed often on the podcast, and why it's important to close it. But what happened in the House Ways and Means markup, and to Rep. Blumenauer's bipartisan de minimis bill? Lori gives the blow-by-blow.

BREAKING NEWS: China's WTO Complaint Against the U.S. on Electric-Vehicle Subsidies. Lori gives background, and tells you what it means.

In our latest episode of Rethinking Trade, we’re talking about the major trade event of the year -- the 13th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO).It’s a major global biennial meeting where cabinet-level officials, like U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, get together to set the agenda for the international  trade and commerce body.Rethink Trade Research Director Daniel Rangel was on the scene in Abu Dhabi. In this episode he dissects the outcomes (or lack thereof!) at the conference. Lori and Daniel explore the implications for the WTO itself as well as fisheries stocks, anti-hunger programs, and much more. You also don’t want to miss how the WTO Director-General’s agenda-setting efforts impacted the negotiations.

Tariffs are in the news again! Why does that term generate such vitriol from some quarters and joy from others?! This week, we explore that question with Scott Paul, the President of the Alliance for American Manufacturing.  Scott and host Lori Wallach discuss how increasingly Democrats and Republicans alike now view tariffs as just another policy tool. For most of U.S. history, this was the American perspective. Tariffs - charges collected at the border on imported goods - were the main source of government revenue when the country was founded.   It seemed useful to unpack what tariffs are and who is generating the negative hype about them given the recent wave of news stories attacking the very concept. Spoiler alert: Tariffs are not a scary, dangerous thing lurking in your economy in the middle of the night!

Our latest episode of the Rethinking Trade podcast offers an urgent update about the de minimis loophole that we first discussed in 2022. It has gotten much worse. E-commerce sites like Amazon, Shein and Temu use this loophole to skirt U.S. Customs and safety inspections and dodge all taxes and trade-cheating enforcement sanctions. Uyghur forced-labor products slip in and fake and dangerous goods too. The loophole is also increasingly being used by criminals to deliver illegal drugs with tragic consequences wracking families nationwide. Our special guest this week is one of the nation’s leading experts on this dangerous scam. Kim Glas, a fighter for fair trade for decades from her roles in Congress, the Obama administration and a labor-environmental group is now president of the National Council of Textile Organization. She has all of the inside information and a strategy of how we can end the de minimis scam once and for all.

In our latest episode, we have two very special guests - voices you will know - talking about a corporate trade power tool that definitely should be on the “out with the old” list! We’re talking about Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) and its implications for our economies and democracies. First, a quick refresher:   What is ISDS?  ISDS grants foreign investors special rights and privileges, allowing them to sue governments outside of domestic courts. These suits often result in staggering compensations for corporations, all while undermining public policies.   ISDS has to go.    That’s why we teamed up with Nobel-winning economist Prof. Joseph Stiglitz and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), our guests on this podcast, to release a paper that we co authored with experts from Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment and the Center for the Advancement of the Rule of Law in the Americas at Georgetown University Law Center, about how we can exit out of ISDS in the Americas.

Welcome back to the Rethinking Trade podcast. Today we bring you the second half of our conversation with Suresh Venkatasubramanian. Suresh co-authored the Biden administration’s Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, and is a leading national expert on AI oversight. With the imminent Biden Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence setting binding U.S. AI policy, there’s never been a better time to get smart on this technology that impacts our lives. Today in part two, we dive deeper into the AI landscape and uncover a potential landmine: Big Tech's plans to rig trade agreements with "digital trade" rules that could derail AI accountability and oversight. (If you missed Part One of our special two-part series on AI, you can hear it here.)Lori Wallach and Daniel Rangel chat with Suresh Venkatasubramanian, who is now with Brown University after serving as Assistant Director for Science and Justice in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Daniel joins Lori in this discussion because he just authored an interesting that unpacks the specific ways AI accountability could be undermined if Big Tech interests get their way in trade negotiations. Daniel’s report is super accessible, which is good because Big Tech's digital trade ploy is very sneaky. Please give Daniel's report a read after you listen to this two-part series!

Greetings from DC!   OK, hope all you 2001: A Space Odyssey fans got a chuckle and no HAL9000 is not joining this edition of the podcast! We have a much better guest, Suresh Venkatasubramanian who co-authored the Biden administration’s Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights.   We've all seen Artificial Intelligence or "AI" making headlines recently, and it's raising critical questions:   * How will AI impact our daily lives?    * And just how do we regulate it to limit what seems like serious risks? * How do we make sure Big Tech interests do not use “digital trade” agreements to pre-empt AI accountability?   Join us for Part One of a special two-part Rethinking Trade series on AI, where we delve into these pressing issues. In this episode, Rethink Trade’s Lori Wallach and Daniel Rangel engage in a discussion with Professor Suresh Venkatasubramanian who is now with Brown University after serving as Assistant Director for Science and Justice in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy   Together, we explore what AI actually is, its  real-world applications, how it is affecting us right NOW, and how governments can help limit its threats and maximize its benefits. In Part 1 of this fascinating conversation with Suresh, you'll gain a deeper understanding of what AI is and how it could shape our future.

Once you've finished listening to our new episode with Larry Cohen, check out this mini-episode as he discusses the UAW strike. ----- We're thrilled to present our latest episode of the Rethinking Trade podcast. Lori is joined by Larry Cohen, former President of the Communication Workers of America, for a guided tour of the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike. Spoiler alert: There’s a lot more about this strike and how it could impact all of us than most of us know.   Larry brings his decades of experience building worker power and broad knowledge of labor history to discuss: ·      The big issues not gaining headlines, like how the strike could broadly shape U.S. workers’ fate in the future green economy, ·      The role this strike plays in the arc of U.S. workers struggles, ·      Where we need to go from here, including what we need to push Congress to do.   Larry’s knowledge and experience makes this conversation a must-listen for anyone interested in a fair economy and social justice.