Social Initiatives Could Help Move Future Trade Deals Forward, Private-Sector Officials Say
As public opinion on trade shifts, CEOs will need to better sell the expected benefits of trade agreements to workers, and the deals might need to accompany proposals to reform the social safety net in order to pass Congress, private-sector officials said Sept. 28 during an event at the Council on Foreign Relations. That includes the idling Trans-Pacific Partnership, Pew Research Center Director of Global Economic Attitudes Bruce Stokes said at the event. “It seems to me some kind of reinvention of the social safety net could convince people to pursue it, because Trade Adjustment Assistance doesn’t buy union support anymore,” Stokes said. “In talking to some of the foreign policy people around Clinton … for the first time in my life, I heard them bring up the issue of the social safety net.” He said Clinton’s campaign has “taken the message” from this election season that social concerns could obstruct foreign policy actions if left-wing groups feel that they’re not being addressed.
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Goldman Sachs International Advisory Board Chairman and former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick during the event panel said that if TPP isn’t ratified in the upcoming lame-duck session of Congress, potential options to move TPP forward in the next presidency could include White House promotion of an associated “counter-currency initiative.” He also highlighted the private sector, saying business executives should work to convince employees that trade agreements will bring them several benefits. “In this case, I think that method of just focusing on business of the Congress will no longer be enough,” Zoellick said. “And the key will be a big effort, whether led by the [U.S. Chamber of Commerce] or something, to help executives talk to their workers about what trade means to them.” Pressure from TPP partners for U.S. ratification after the lame-duck session could also help nudge lawmakers to advance that deal, Zoellick said.