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**NOVEMBER 15, 2023**
On the Prospect website
Oklahoma Senator Driven to Violent Frenzy by Teamsters President
A Capitol Hill hearing highlights how much labor unions have won this
year, as well as the Republicans who are furious over it. BY JAROD
FACUNDO
House Republicans Circle Their Own Budget Ouroboros Once More
Meet the new Speaker of the House, same as the old one BY RYAN COOPER
At Tesla, Swedish Workers Can Do What American Workers Can't
In support of striking mechanics, dockworkers there are no longer
unloading Teslas. Such solidarity isn't legal here. BY HAROLD MEYERSON
Kuttner on TAP
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**** Train Wreck of a Trade Deal
The Biden administration has to slow-walk a marquee agreement, the
Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. That might even be a blessing in
disguise.
One of President Biden's great accomplishments has been to move away
from the corporate use of trade policy to advance corporate interests at
the expense of the public interest. But the Biden administration can't
seem to get its act together on a pending deal known as the Indo-Pacific
Economic Framework (IPEF).
This saga gets a little wonky but is important because it is emblematic
of the divisions in both the administration and the Democratic Party, as
well as the immense power of Big Tech to turn government policy to its
own use.
The backstory: Trade traditionalists cooked up IPEF as a sequel to the
failed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) of the Obama era. Unlike its
predecessor, IPEF isn't exactly a trade deal-it contains no tariff
cuts or market access rules-rather it's an "economic framework" with
13 Pacific Rim "partners," and doesn't require the approval of
Congress.
The tech lobby has viewed IPEF as a useful vehicle to undercut
regulation of platform monopolies by both the U.S. and other nations, in
such areas as privacy, antitrust, and national security. However,
despite spending a small fortune to influence IPEF, tech has been
outplayed.
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The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has blocked Big Tech's
agenda, both on the trade provisions of IPEF and in parallel
negotiations at the World Trade Organization. This has left tech
champions in Congress, notably Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), livid. Meanwhile,
on the progressive side, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is just as appalled
that IPEF contains no provisions on labor rights and has threatened to
sink the whole deal.
IPEF was supposed to be completed in time for this week's Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation summit, to be personally unveiled by President
Biden. Three of the major IPEF "pillars" are complete, on supply chains,
cooperation on clean energy, and fighting corruption and tax evasion.
These are the province of the Commerce Department.
But the trade pillar is still the subject of fierce infighting, and
it's not clear who at the White House is in charge of coming up with a
unified position. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan (who has a few
other things on his mind) is said to be friendlier to the view that
trade policy should not carry water for Big Tech, while National
Economic Council director Lael Brainard is more of a trade
traditionalist. She happens to be married to Kurt Campbell, President
Biden's nominee to be deputy secretary of state. Campbell, in the
Obama administration, was a big booster of TPP and of the tech world's
self-serving conception of digital trade.
For now, the plan is to kick the can down the road: delay releasing the
contentious trade provisions of IPEF, let the infighting continue, and
release the texts of the other three pillars. It would not be so bad if
the result of all of this were to stop doing trade deals. They do little
for the U.S. or the world economic system; they are mostly about optics,
and they are constantly at risk of being captured.
~ ROBERT KUTTNER
Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter
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