Some Democrats (127 in the House) are urging a "new direction" for U.S. trade policy. For instance:
H.R. 3012, TRADE Act
...
The bill spells out what should be in trade agreements including standards on: labor, environment, food and product safety, agriculture, human rights, currency anti-manipulation rules, national security, procurement, investment
The bill also lists issues that should NOT be in trade agreements including: bans on Buy America, bans on anti-sweatshop rules, new rights for foreign investors to promote off-shoring, service sector privatization and deregulation requirements, special protections for pharmaceutical companies that limit affordable access to drugs....
H.R. 3786, Reciprocal Market Access Act
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Authority to receive or eliminate tariffs in trade agreements is tied to achieving meaningful market access for U.S. domestic producers that have identified and worked with the U.S. government to address those barriers.
To better ensure meaningful market access, the bill requires that the President provide a certification to the Congress in advance of agreeing to a modification of any existing duty on any product, that sectoral reciprocal market access has been obtained.
I wish I had a better sense of how they envisioned the trade regime. Let's say they controlled Congress and the White House, and could convince the rest of the world to go along. What would things look like? I'm pretty sure of the following:
-- international labor and environment rules would be strengthened (broader and more enforceable)
-- international IP rules would be weakened (e.g., more leeway for compulsory licensing)
-- Buy (Your Country Here) rules would be allowed and widely used
-- subsidies and protection for agriculture would be higher
-- services liberalization would mostly stop
-- investment agreements would be weakened (e.g., perhaps no more investor-state)
But there's one very important point that I can't figure out. What is their ideal view of tariffs? They seem to want to condition lowering U.S. tariffs on other countries lowering their tariffs. My question is, would they prefer that other countries don't lower tariffs, and thus all tariffs remain high? Or are they hoping everyone else lowers their tariffs, after which the U.S. will do so as well?
