Biden Admin Has ‘Non-Attitude’ Toward Trade, Former Treasury Secretary Says
The Biden administration's trade agenda should focus less on protectionism and more on traditional trade agreements, said a former treasury secretary and U.S. trade representative during a July 25 event hosted by the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
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“I'm so concerned by the administration's attitudes or non-attitude towards trade,” said Larry Summers, who ran the Treasury Department during the Clinton administration and the National Economic Council during the Obama administration. Summers said that he supported certain trade-related provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act but is “profoundly concerned by the doctrine of manufacturing-centered economic nationalism that is increasingly being put forth as a general principle to guide policy.”
Robert Zoellick, who was USTR during the George W. Bush administration, said U.S. protectionist policies surrounding electric cars have made China “the most advanced player in electric vehicles” and “angered the Europeans” due to IRA’s electric vehicle tax incentives (see 2304140046). “We'll see what happens in electric vehicle production in the United States,” Zoellick said. “Part of the challenge of industrial policy … there can be appealing concepts about it, but it's devilishly difficult.”
"I think it would be a huge mistake for the United States to sort of imitate Chinese policies in competing with China," Zoellick added. "The more we withdraw and just focus on our subsidies, our barriers, our Buy America provisions, we're not in the game abroad to shape the standards of the future.”