The Sustainable Equitable Trade Doctrine

U.S. foreign policy and the need to cultivate international alliances increasingly conflict with US domestic politics, particularly with regard to trade. The 2016 election featured an outgoing Democratic administration insisting the Trans-Pacific Partnership was the U.S.’s last hope to show its commitment to the Asia-Pacific, a Republican candidate blaming it and other trade deals for all that ails the U.S. working class, and a Democratic candidate caught in the middle. Given the rise of right-wing economic authoritarianism that co-opts certain aspects of the trade policy critique of progressives, the latter are struggling with whether to pivot right, left, or center on trade questions.