On Monday, January 31st, and Tuesday, February 1st, 2022, WITA hosted its fourth annual Washington International Trade Conference (WITC). This conference brought together leaders in international trade from across the U.S. and around the world to explore the trade landscape and look toward the future of trade.

 Secretary-General Mathias Cormann, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Moderator: Ambassador Kristen Silverberg, President & COO, Business Roundtable; former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union 

Aik Hoe Lim, Director, Trade and Environment Division, World Trade Organization

Kelly K. Milton, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative, Environment and Natural Resources

Ambassador Gloria Abraham Peralta, Costa Rica’s Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organization, Co-Chair, Trade and Environmental Sustainability Structured Discussions (TESSD), World Trade Organization

Moderator: Sarah Stewart, Executive Director, Silverado Policy Accelerator; former Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative, Environment and Natural Resources

Angela Ellard, Deputy Director General, World Trade Organization

Moderator: Ambassador Rufus Yerxa, former Deputy U.S. Trade Representative; former Deputy Director General of the World Trade Organization

Amy P. Celico, Principal Albright Stonebridge Group | Dentons Global Advisors; former Senior Director for China Affairs, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative

Wendy Cutler, Vice President, Asia Society Policy Institute; former Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative

Bonnie Glaser, Director of the Asia Program, German Marshall Fund of the United States

Samm Sacks, Senior Fellow, Paul Tsai China Center & New America, Yale Law School

Moderator: Erin Ennis, Vice President, Global Public Policy, Dell Technologies

Ambassador Kirsten Hillman, Canadian Ambassador to the United States

Ambassador Tomita Koji, Japanese Ambassador to the United States

Ambassador Stavros Lambrinidis, European Union Ambassador to the United States

Moderator: Ambassador Susan Schwab, Strategic Advisor, Mayer Brown LLP; former U.S. Trade Representative

Orit Frenkel, CEO, American Leadership Initiative

Ed Gresser, Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets, Progressive Policy Institute (PPI)

Jeffrey Kucik, Associate Professor, School of Government and Public Policy at University of Arizona

Chad Thompson, Executive Director for Legal Affairs & Trade, General Motors

Moderator: Sarah Thorn, Senior Director of Global Government Affairs, Walmart

Jon Gold, Vice President of Supply Chain and Customs Policy, National Retail Federation

Phil Levy, Chief Economist, Flexport

Penny Naas, President of International Public Affairs and Sustainability, UPS

Maria Zieba, Assistant Vice President of International Affairs, National Pork Producers Council

Moderator: Ana Swanson, Correspondent, New York Times

Ambassador Sarah Bianchi, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative

Moderator: Ambassador Robert Holleyman, Partner & President & CEO, Crowell & Moring LLP and C&M International; Former Deputy U.S. Trade Representative

The post 2022 Washington International Trade Conference Recap appeared first on WITA.

9:00 AM: Revitalization and Reform of the WTO with WTO Deputy Director General Ambassador Alan Wm. Wolff

• Featured Remarks by Ambassador Alan Wm. Wolff,Deputy Director General of the WTO, and Co-Acting Director General
• Discussion with:
  • Kenneth Levinson,Executive Director, Washington International Trade Association
  • Terence Stewart,former Managing Partner, Law Offices of Stewart and Stewart, and author of the blog, Current Thoughts on Trade

9:30 AM-10:15 AM: Discussion: Revitalization and Reform of the WTO 

• Ambassador Rufus Yerxa,President of the National Foreign Trade Council and former Deputy Director General of the World Trade Organization
• Simon Evenett,Professor of International Trade and Economic Development and MBA Director, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland
• Jennifer Hillman,Senior Fellow for Trade and International Political Economy, Council on Foreign Relations
• Hiddo Houben,Deputy Permanent Representative, EU Mission to the WTO
•  

10:15 AM: What does a Neo-Progressive Trade Agenda look like? 

• Moderator: Catherine Novelli,President, Listening for America, former Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment
• Beth Baltzan,Founder, American Phoenix Trade Advisory Service and formerly with USTR and the House Ways & Means Committee
• Catherine Feingold,Director, AFL-CIO International Department
• Katrin Kuhlmann,President and Founder, New Markets Lab, and Visiting Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
• Kimberley Botwright,Community Lead, Global Trade and Investment, World Economic Forum

11:15 AM: Closing Keynote and Discussion: Ways & Means Chairman Richard Neal

• Rep. Richard Neal,Chairman, House Ways & Means Committee
• Discussion with Steve Lamar,President and CEO of the American Apparel and Footwear Association, and President of the Board, Washington International Trade Association

12:00 PM: Conference Close

To view more information on the event, please click here. 

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On January 27, 2021, WITA held an event looking into the U.S. ban on cotton products and tomatoes produced in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

U.S. law prohibits the importation of any product that is mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part by forced labor, including forced or indentured child labor.

In 2020, the United States Department of Labor released two reports and updates to its efforts to combat international child labor and forced labor, including a list of goods produced in China under conditions of forced labor in violation of international standards.

This month, the U.S. banned imports of cotton products and tomatoes produced in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region over reports of the use of forced labor in production of those products.

The post WITA Webinar: The U.S. Moves Against Forced Labor in Xinjiang appeared first on WITA.

On November 12th WITA looked at what the U.S. Presidential election might mean for American trade policy in the years to come, with a bipartisan panel of experts who served in senior roles in Congress and the Administration. Welcome and Opening Remarks 

PROGRAM AGENDA

Welcome and Opening Remarks

• Kenneth I. Levinson, Executive Director, Washington International Trade Association

Remarks and Discussion

• Nasim Fussell, Partner, Holland & Knight; and former Chief International Trade Counsel, Senate Finance Committee
• Ambassador Robert Holleyman, Partner, Crowell & Moring LLP and President & CEO, C&M International; and former Deputy USTR
• Brian Pomper, Partner, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP; and former Chief International Trade Counsel, Senate Finance Committee
• Stephen P. Vaughn, Partner, King & Spalding; and former USTR General Counsel, and Acting USTR
• Moderator, Stephanie Lester, Senior Director, Government Affairs, Gap Inc.

Followed by:

• Q & A with Audience – Webinar attendees are encouraged to use the Q&A function on the Zoom app to submit their questions in real time.

Event Close

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On Thursday, October 15th, WITA discussed these efforts, as well as what business and civil society are doing to reduce child and forced labor around the world.

PROGRAM AGENDA 

Welcome and Opening Remarks 

• Kenneth I. Levinson, Executive Director, Washington International Trade Association

Remarks and Discussion

• Marcia Eugenio, Director, Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, U.S. Department of Labor
• Catherine Feingold, Director of the International Department, American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations
• Sharon Waxman, President & CEO, Fair Labor Association (FLA)
• Moderator, Steve Lamar, President & CEO, Policy, American Apparel & Footwear Association

Followed by:

• Q & A with Audience – Webinar attendees are encouraged to use the Q&A function on the Zoom app to submit their questions in real time.

Event Close

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Marcia Eugenio is the Director of the Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking (OCFT) in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB). Under Ms. Eugenio’s leadership, OCFT’s work has contributed to the worldwide reduction of approximately 90 million child laborers, provided millions of children with education and training and their families with viable livelihood opportunities, and increased the capacity of governments to address these issues. OCFT has also worked closely with the private sector and created tools to mitigate labor abuses in global supply chains. Ms. Eugenio has over 25 years of federal government experience. She also served as Senior Program Officer at the International Labor Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. Ms. Eugenio received a Bachelor Degree in International Studies from the City College of New York and a Master Degree in Public Policy from the University of Michigan. She has participated in numerous educational and career development programs, including programs at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and at Brookings Institution, and conducted independent research on youth employment and child labor in 2015.

Catherine Feingold is the Director of the International Department at the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, and is a leading advocate on global workers’ rights issues. As Director of the AFL-CIO’s International Department, Feingold is a committed and passionate advocate, strategic campaigner and policy expert. In 2018, Feingold was elected Deputy President of the International Trade Union Confederation, the organization representing 200 million unionized workers worldwide. She brings more than 20 years of experience in trade and global economic policy, and worker, human and women’s rights issues. In 2020, Speaker Pelosi appointed Feingold to the Independent Mexico Labor Expert Board, the body created under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement to monitor and evaluate labor reforms and worker rights compliance in Mexico. Her work in both global and grassroots fora reflect her commitment to strengthening the voice of working people in global policy debates.

Feingold previously directed the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center’s work in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, where she worked with local trade union partners to develop innovative campaigns to improve the working conditions of domestic, migrant and informal economy workers. The work led to a growing movement of domestic workers who affiliated to the Dominican labor movement. In Haiti, she developed labor law training programs and helped publish the first Creole language excerpt of the Haitian labor law, accessible to workers. She led the organization’s humanitarian response to the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti. 

Feingold’s professional experience includes work for the labor movement, large international organizations, small grassroots NGOs and a foundation. She leads coalition efforts to shape global labor standards, including the recently ratified International Labor Organization Convention 190 to eliminate violence and harassment at work. She has written about the impact of economic policies on market women in Nigeria and, as a Fulbright scholar in Nicaragua, she researched the impact of structural adjustment policies on women workers. She continues to be a strong advocate for gender equity and working women issues. 

Feingold holds a bachelor’s degree from Pitzer College and an M.P.A. from Columbia University.

Sharon Waxman is the President & CEO at the Fair Labor Association. Sharon is an expert in corporate social responsibility and labor rights with a background in international development and humanitarian response.

 As CEO at the Fair Labor Association, Sharon leads a team of global experts working to create sustainable solutions to prevent and remediate labor rights violations in the apparel and agriculture sectors through the combined efforts of leading multinational corporations, public and private universities, and civil society organizations. 

Before the FLA, Sharon led the global policy and advocacy team at the International Rescue Committee with responsibility for developing and promoting the organization and its public policy positions.

Sharon spent more than two decades in public administration, serving as deputy to the Undersecretary for Civilian Service, Democracy and Human Rights at the U.S. Department of State and as a senior national security adviser in the U.S. Senate.

As a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Sharon is a leading voice on foreign policy matters. She is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University – School of Advanced International Studies and the University of California, Berkeley.

Steve Lamar is President and CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association, the national trade association representing more than 1,000 brands in the apparel and footwear industry. Steve leads a dedicated team of professionals who represent AAFA members before the government, through the media, and in industry settings on key brand protection, supply chain and manufacturing, and trade issues. Steve also advises AAFA member companies on legislation and regulatory policies. Prior to becoming President and CEO, Steve served as Executive Vice President for the association.

Prior to AAFA, Steve spent more than a decade engaged in international public policy work, including stints at the U.S. Commerce Department and in the Peace Corps. A runner, juggler, and genealogist in his spare time, Steve is President of the Washington International Trade Association. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Colgate University and a Master of Arts Degree in International Affairs (with a concentration on African politics and international trade) from George Washington University.

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On Wednesday, Sept 23, WITA co-hosted a webinar with the American Leadership Initiative (ALI) with Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Chair of the House Ways & Means Trade Subcommittee. 

Mr. Blumenauer is planning the trade agenda for the next Congress, considering the expiration of TPA, TAA and GSP. He is looking at how to reframe the trade agenda to address labor, sustainability and other domestic concerns.

• Kenneth I. Levinson, Executive Director, Washington International Trade Association

• Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Member, U.S. House of Representatives
• Moderator: Dr. Orit Frenkel, Executive Director, American Leadership Initiative (ALI)

• Q & A with Audience Moderated by Ken – Webinar attendees are encouraged to use the Q&A function on the Zoom app to submit their questions in real time.

The post WITA Webinar: Discussion with Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Chairman of the House Ways & Means Trade Subcommittee appeared first on WITA.

On Thursday, April 9, WITA co-hosted a webinar with the Asia Society Policy Institute on the next steps in the effort to remove trade restrictions on essential goods, especially medical equipment and supplies, in the face of the COVID-19 crisis.

• Ambassador Darci Vetter, Vice Chair, Agriculture, Food, Edelman
• Wendy Cutler, Vice President and Managing Director of Washington D.C. Office, Asia Society Policy Institute
• Sabine Weyand, Ph.D., Director General for Trade, European Commission
• Ambassador Alan Wolff, Deputy Director-General, World Trade Organization (WTO)

The post WITA Webinar: COVID-19 & Trade – A WTO Agenda appeared first on WITA.

Trade and the 2020 Elections: The Swing Voter Project

By: Madelyn Cunningham

On February 4th, 2020, WITA hosted Rich Thau as a keynote speaker, as he gave his presentation, “Trade and the 2020 Elections: The Swing Voter Project.” Kimberly Ellis, WITA Board member and Principal of the Monument Policy Group, introduced Thau with his business title, President and Co-Founder of Engagious, and his other project, the Swing Voter Project. By grouping swing voters into two categories: Obama-Trump voters and Romney-Clinton voters, Thau has set out to predict the outcome of swing voting counties in the Upper Midwest.

Thau began by discussing his methodology of picking locations to study, through a color-coded map released by CNBC. The map depicted in dark red the highest rates of swing voting in the 2016 elections from Obama to Trump. Each dark red county was cross-examined by population, and selected if not too sparsely populated.

But why take on this project? According to Thau, there were three reasons. Firstly, in 2016, inconsistent and purely quantitative pollsters did not account for the entire opinion of those they were polling. Thau highlighted the need to not only ask what their opinion was, but also why, prompting his qualitative research design.

Secondly, Thau argued that no one should be shocked by the 2020 election outcome as they were in 2016, especially with the amount of contention in the recent political climate. Lastly, the project should be able to uncover key insights into swing voting habits.

Thau then moved on into his key findings thus far. He found that from the areas he polled, the swing voters were low information voters, receiving most of their news and political information from local broadcastings limited to sports, weather, crime, and traffic, local websites, facebook, national morning TV shows, and “news aggregators” accessible from their device. 

To build on the fact that these are low information voters, Thau asked participants to identify the Democratic candidates for the upcoming 2020 election. He first asked them how confident they were in identifying the Democratic candidates from official photos on a 1 to 10 scale.

In August, Bernie Sanders was the first most identified, at 8.3, followed by Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Beto O’Rourke. Pete Buttigieg was less than 2 and has not shifted since the scale was generated in August. For comparison, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, though not a presidential candidate for 2020, was ranked by identification rate in 4th place after Elizabeth Warren. 

In October, Thau was interviewed by Michael Smerconish about the likelihood that Obama-Trump voters would vote for Trump again in the fall. He discussed a hypothetical match-up between Obama and Trump. In each focus group, roughly 2/3rds would choose President Trump. Even though Trump’s campaign promise to bring back manufacturing jobs in the area had not been followed through, these voters were still with the president because of his “America First” agenda.

Compared to the Obama-Trump voters, swing voters that voted Romney then Clinton responded they would vote for Obama in an Obama-Trump match-up.

Thau also found that there was not much “nostalgia” for the Obama-Biden administration among the swing voters. Even participants from Joe Biden’s hometown, Scranton, Pennsylvania, felt no connection to him as a candidate, saying that he was not truly from there to begin with. 

Thau’s third key finding tied into how the state of the economy directly relates to the likelihood of Trump’s reelection, as many voted for him because of his background in business. If the economy turns, support for him would dwindle as he is weak in key issues important to the swing voter demographic. 

In suburban Minneapolis, participants pointed out that he had made “zero effort” to fix the healthcare system. If a democratic candidate were to run on the platform of better, affordable healthcare, this would garner support from swing voters. Trump’s behavior and presence was also analyzed, and while some were supportive, many participants were embarrassed when seeing him on their TV or device. The main dissidents for Trump’s behavior being the Romney-Clinton voters.

As mentioned in his CNN interview with Michael Smerconish, while he did not follow through on the promise to restore manufacturing jobs, his “America First” agenda in foreign policy has won over the swing voters in the Midwest. Relating to foreign affairs, while Trump has been strong with trade policy, the hot button issue for these voters was immigration. While not interchangeable, swing voters view immigration and trade as two issues on “the same ‘America First’ coin.”  

The swing voters do not view trade as a key voting issue, they know more about negotiations with China than they do about the USMCA. In Wilkes-Barre, PA, when asked about whether they knew anyone who personally benefited or was harmed from Trump’s trade policy, there was no response from the focus group.

To encapsulate the swing voters’ knowledge on trade, Thau stated that one response summarized the entire demographic, “we have used so much out of America, and imposing those tariffs will eventually move those jobs back here even though it will cost us more.” 

To further explain the swing voter’s engagement with trade policy, Thau explained that about 3/4ths believe that America’s efforts to secure a fair trade deal with China will be worth the higher prices on imports from other countries. However there is a limit to their tariff support, as if the trade war with China was prolonged and prices were significantly raised, Trump would lose support. All of the swing voters believed that only American Swing Voters beared the cost for tariffs.

Shown a clip of Senator Klobuchar on trade, her approval rating from the Wilkes-Barre focus group increased drastically as soon as she discussed her support for “Made in America” goods. There is a growing mistrust of corporations, but where Senator Warren’s statements about trade are supported by focus groups, their support for her falls when discussing how she will pay for her programs like “Medicare for All” by taking from big corporations. The participants, while in support of the issue, respond that to expect the top income bracket and big corporations to pay for this plan is unachievable.

Moving on to bonus issues, swing voters believe that the weather is getting “weirder” when asked about environmental policy. There is an awareness of climate change, and they are critical of regulatory rollbacks affecting the environment. When asked about the environmental rollbacks, participants in Wilkes-Barre said that they affected the air and water quality and ultimately the health of the community, which could not afford basic healthcare in most cases. There was an overall sense of fear and worry about the state of the environment, and it was more of a key voting issue than healthcare policy.

Participants were also asked to fill in the blank: “Make America _________ Again.” Overwhelmingly, they responded to make America “America” again and “fair.” But there was no consensus as to what they specifically wanted America to be, and Thau argued that this was one of the key problems for Democrats, as while united against Trump, there is no common platform or idea of what they think America should be. 

Thau discussed his findings relating to the impeachment trial of President Trump. The swing voters viewed the trial was just a distraction and demonstration that the Democratic party leaders are out of touch with “regular” Americans. They blame impeachment for the lack of policy and coverage on issues that matter to them.

To conclude his presentation, Thau summarized his key arguments through the various swing voter trends found in his project thus far. He stated that there needs to be attention paid to those who are low information voters, Trump’s “America First” sentiment maintained his support among the demographic, the economy is a determining factor in his reelection, and there was no consensus on what America should be going forward.

To get updates on the findings from Rich Thau’s project, sign up for his newsletter on SwingVoterProject.com.

Kimberly Ellis of the Monument Policy Group joined Rich Thau onstage for a debrief on his presentation. She first asked for Thau’s thoughts on Mike Bloomberg’s prospects in the upcoming race. Thau responded with the fact that in many of the counties he visited, Bloomberg was, for the most part, an unfamiliar candidate.

One of the respondents in Wilkes-Barre pointed out that there was no grass-roots support for Bloomberg, that instead Bloomberg was just a billionaire spending money on his campaign. In contrast, Trump ran on the platform that his campaign was supported from the bottom up, and not just from large personal donations.

In regard to trade policy, Ellis went on to ask whether or not the swing voters supported Trump’s trade policy. Thau stated that they were in absolute support, and that it was not necessarily his specific agreements and policy work, but his messaging of “being on the case”. There is no awareness of the economic effects of his deals, but they are more focused on progress overall.

Featuring:

Rich Thau, President & Co-Founder, Engagious

Kimberly Ellis, Principal, Monument Policy Group

To view more details about the event, visit the event page here.

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