CIAO DATE: 10/2011
September 2011
One of the most effective ways to create good new jobs and reverse the income decline of the past decade is for the United States to “become a thriving trading nation,” concludes a new high-level Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)-sponsored Independent Task Force report on U.S. Trade and Investment Policy. The report calls for the Obama administration and Congress to “adopt a pro-America trade policy that brings to more Americans more of the benefits of global engagement, within the framework of a strengthened, rules-based trading system.” The growth of global trade and investment has brought significant benefits to the United States and to the rest of the world. But U.S. leadership on international trade has waned in recent years because of deep domestic political divisions over trade policy that arise largely from the very real economic difficulties too many Americans face, acknowledges the Task Force. The Task Force warns that the political stalemate “has already harmed U.S. interests and will do more if it remains unresolved.” “Unless the United States develops and sustains a trade policy that yields greater benefits for Americans in job and wage growth, it will be difficult to build the political consensus needed to move forward,” says the report. The blue-ribbon group is chaired by former chief of staff during the George W. Bush administration and former secretary of transportation Andrew H. Card and former Senate majority leader Thomas A. Daschle, and is directed by CFR Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow Edward Alden and Adjunct Senior Fellow for Business and Globalization Matthew J. Slaughter.
Resource link: U.S. Trade and Investment Policy [PDF] - 1.8M