Pursuing Responsible Trade Agreements
Trade deals can be powerful tools to promote responsible and sustainable business practices and facilitate collective action to address global challenges, but only if they are approached in the right way. Exploitative trade deals disproportionately harm vulnerable workers in order to benefit corporations and shareholders. The United States must prioritize making safety standards, labor rights, and environmental protections core components of trade agreements from the beginning of negotiations, and apply these standards domestically.
The United States should:
Not perpetuate or promote unfair, unsafe, and unprotected work, and should not prioritize the deregulation of industries over standards that protect people and the environment. Collective human wellbeing should always be the central principle guiding US trade policy.
Ensure that trade agreements do not enforce undemocratic decision-making practices, especially in lower GDP/capita countries.
Require historically high polluting states to help subsidize energy and other transitions when crafting environmental standards.
Include a clause in every trade agreement that mandates a commitment to addressing climate change in a globally cooperative way.
Ensure that US economic engagement with tax havens is contingent on compliance with the Banking Secrecy Act.
Encourage and promote internet openness and high standards of privacy among US trade partners.