Just as Joe Biden brings a dramatically different approach to the U.S. presidency than Donald Trump, so he does when it comes to trade.
Trump campaigned aggressively in 2016 on improving trade deals for the U.S., and that’s part of the reason he was elected to the presidency.
He said he would renegotiate NAFTA, which his administration did, creating the USMCA trade agreement.
Trump also vowed to be a tougher negotiator on China, which led to tariff reductions on 150 agricultural items and a commitment to buy $20 billion worth of U.S. ag products in 2020 and 2021.
The global pandemic derailed this agreement and contributed to American voters electing Biden in 2020.
While Trump’s trade approach was more focused and singular, Biden views trade as more of a component in an overall strategy, said Darci Vetter, GM Public Affairs, Vice Chair Agriculture and Trade for Edelman.
Vetter gave these thoughts in an address to the blueberry industry at the NABC/USHBC Spring Conference & Meeting March 16.
Vetter said Biden’s trade policy will focus on how trade deals affect the middle class; the environment and climate change; and labor and human rights.
“Trade policy is foreign and domestic policy,” she said.
The overall approach can be thought of as trade-and, as in trade and some other goal, Vetter said.
The U.S. values market access, but what will that do for Americans in the U.S.?
The administration will also hold trade partners to tougher environmental standards, she said, and high labor standards.
It’s a very different approach, Vetter said.
Vetter is the former Chief Agricultural Negotiator at the U.S. Trade Representative and Deputy Under Secretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
