Rethinking Trade with Lori Wallach

Did you know that states across the country are taking steps right now to regulate artificial intelligence (AI), protect kids' online safety, guarantee us the right to repair our phones, cars and other stuff, as well as safeguard data privacy?

It was a busy Friday on Capitol Hill, as the Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on digital trade.

If you haven't heard about "digital trade", the name that Big Tech lobbyists have given to a backdoor to try and tie the hands of Congress and regulators to evade privacy requirements/anti-discrimination online rules and shut down AI oversight, this podcast is for you.

Don't forget to also read our international preemption paper for further background, and stay tuned for our forthcoming podcast on our states tracker, which goes into Big Tech's digital trade agenda at the state level.

In this special breaking news episode of the Rethinking Trade podcast, Lori Wallach explains today's White House actions on the #deminimis loophole.

Remember: please visit our previous episodes on the de minimis loophole to understand just how e-commerce platforms like #Shein and #Temu are exploiting the loophole, and what it means for you.

How many times has your phone, car, or whatever broken and you or your local repair shop can’t get the part or the software update to fix it? You’re told the only options are to pay an obscene amount to a dealer or manufacturer, or prematurely replace the item.
People in states across the country are fighting back by enacting “right to repair” laws. But corporate lobbyists hope to rig trade agreements with rules that forbid access to the information that we need to fix our stuff.
Join Lori Wallach and special guest Nathan Proctor, Senior Director of the Campaign for Right to Repair at PIRG, as they examine the right to repair and how trade deals could undermine it.

Learn how the digitalization of everything gave companies new ways to monopolize who can fix stuff. Nathan explains how we can restore these basic rights Americans have long had.  
Lori reveals how companies are trying to lock in new corporate powers by slipping vague and non-trade-related rules into “trade” deals.

Hello, friends!

We’ve got a new podcast episode and it’s a bit different!
A veritable OG trade crew got together for a kick-ass discussion on "A New Trade Policy to Break Up Corporate Power” at our recent Anti-Monopoly Summit.

How OG? The discussion is led by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) the House Trade Working Groups chair (and House Approps Ranking Member!) and features Thea Lee (Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs, Department of Labor) and Scott Paul (President, Alliance for American Manufacturing) and our own Lori Wallach, Director, AELP's Rethink Trade.

These folks first met battling against NAFTA in 1992! They have unique insights into how decades of neoliberal hyperglobalization concentrated power among a few dominant corporations and undermined workers, small businesses, and our national resilience and security.
But perhaps the best part is that they discuss how trade policy tools—tariffs, conditioning market access on labor and other standards, supply management instruments, and more— can create industrial policy that curbs corporate power and empowers workers and smaller businesses. After hearing the discussion, it will be crystal clear why replacing pro-monopoly trade rules is critical to enhancing economic justice, our economic resilience and security and battle climate chaos.

Listen now!

In this special breaking news episode of Rethinking Trade, Lori Wallach breaks down President Biden's new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and solar panels. Tune in to understand the implications of these tariffs, and the rationale behind them.

Spoiler: these measures are crucial for combating unfair trade practices and ensuring supply chain resilience.

Our latest Rethinking Trade podcast episode is out now, and it's a special one.

Lori Wallach sits down with Arthur Stamoulis, the Executive Director of Citizens Trade Campaign and Trade Justice Education Fund, to talk the past, present, and future of the

Lori and Arthur take us on a speedy tour through the

Spoiler alert: Arthur and the diverse Citizens Trade

In our latest breaking news segment for Rethinking Trade, Lori Wallach discusses the latest developments on Capitol Hill.

De minimis is a trade loophole that we've discussed often on the podcast, and why it's important to close it. But what happened in the House Ways and Means markup, and to Rep. Blumenauer's bipartisan de minimis bill?

Lori gives the blow-by-blow.

BREAKING NEWS: China's WTO Complaint Against the U.S. on Electric-Vehicle Subsidies.

Lori gives background, and tells you what it means.

In our latest episode of Rethinking Trade, we’re talking about the major trade event of the year -- the 13th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
It’s a major global biennial meeting where cabinet-level officials, like U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, get together to set the agenda for the international  trade and commerce body.
Rethink Trade Research Director Daniel Rangel was on the scene in Abu Dhabi. In this episode he dissects the outcomes (or lack thereof!) at the conference. Lori and Daniel explore the implications for the WTO itself as well as fisheries stocks, anti-hunger programs, and much more. You also don’t want to miss how the WTO Director-General’s agenda-setting efforts impacted the negotiations.