Former United States Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai, who served in the Biden administration, says President Donald Trump’s “message of power” on trade and his use of tariffs is strongly backed by blue-collar Americans “aggrieved by the era of free trade.”
In an interview with Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka on Monday, Tai acknowledged that Trump’s tariff agenda, which brought in a record-breaking $200 billion in revenue last year alone, has won massive support from working-class communities that have borne the brunt of free trade for decades.
“Workers, especially blue-collar workers, have been the ones that have faired the least well in the trade policies of the last 45 years,” Tai said:
And as you see President Trump go out with this very pugnacious and disruptive approach to trade and his really strong reliance on tariffs, something that we all should understand is the degree to which those members of our economy who have felt really aggrieved by the era of free trade are drawn and attracted to this message of power and even vengeance when it comes to reordering trade in the global economy. What that tells us is, we need an economy, and in particular, a trade policy that works better for ordinary working people. [Emphasis added]
Tai, who was considered one of only a handful of economic nationalists in the Biden administration, questioned the so-called successes of free trade touted by economists.
“We need a coalition to come together to really change the dial of how things are working … in the era of free trade, what was free about it? Free trade actually incurred a lot of costs that we haven’t talked about that we try to paper over,” Tai, who now runs the pro-tariff Coalition for New Trade, said.
“And in many cases, the moment we face today when it comes to trade policy, geopolitics, and even our domestic politics is a result of sweeping, inconvenient realities under the rug for too long,” Tai said. “So, what that tells me as a trade policy expert is that we have to completely reimagine free trade to be the kind of trade that creates more winners, fewer losers, and needs to be completely reorganized.”
During Tai’s tenure as USTR, she released a report detailing the crushing impact that more than three decades of free trade policies had on American communities — particularly working and lower-middle-class towns.
Among other findings, the report said free trade policies allowed corporations to more readily move American jobs overseas and keep wages low for jobs that remain in the U.S. As a result, towns and cities were hollowed out, which put downward pressure on their local economies, spurring a loss of supporting industries like diners, grocery stores, mom-and-pop shops, and other local businesses.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected].
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