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Ambassador Tai: trade policy can be leveraged to address climate issues

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai has outlined her vision for leveraging trade policy to address climate challenges.

She says there is bipartisan support for including enforceable labor and environmental rules in bilateral and regional trade agreements.

“The goal is to ensure we and our trading partners are engaged in fair competition that does not suppress environmental protection,” she says. “The United States has been and remains the leader in rewriting trade rules so that they move us toward this model of fair competition.”

She says the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement is an example of this.

“The updated agreement now includes the most comprehensive environmental standards of any U.S. trade agreement and, I would argue, any agreement,” she says. “critical environmental provisions reflected in the USMCA include strong rules to address wildlife trafficking, illegal logging and fishing, fishery subsidies, marine litter, and air and water pollution.”

But, she says the policies must be enforced.  

“Environmental groups have complained for years that chronic lack of enforcement of these rules fundamentally undermines the effort and they are right,” she says. “I’m committed to enforcing the rules of USMCA and our other agreements to ensure, not only that we follow through on our promises to protect the planet, but that we protect our workers against this unfair competition.”   

Tai was the keynote speaker during a virtual event by the Center for American Progress today.