TPP: Trade “Trump-ing” the Election [Voter Pick]
Session Type(s): Panel
Starts: Saturday, Jul. 16 2:30 PM (Eastern)
Ends: Saturday, Jul. 16 3:45 PM (Eastern)
Voters’ opposition to job-killing trade policies has fueled the surge of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has generated an unprecedented diverse opposition movement reflective of its potential to negatively affect all our lives. This panel will explore how growing public ire about job-killing trade policies will shape the election and our ability to combat issues like climate change and income inequality. The elite political class has systematically misread the depth of voters’ ire about the harm done by 20 years of NAFTA-style trade deals supported by Democratic and GOP presidents. Or are they dismissing voters’ anger as ill-informed even as economists that supported past pacts increasingly oppose the TPP?
Moderator
Lori Wallach
Lori Wallach is the director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. A 25-year veteran of congressional trade battles starting with the 1990s fight over NAFTA, she was named to the “Politico’s 50” list of thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics in 2016 for her leadership in the Trans-Pacific Partnership debate. Wallach is an internationally recognized expert on trade with experience advocating in Congress and foreign parliaments, trade negotiations, courts, government agencies, the media and in the streets. Dubbed “the Trade Debate’s Guerrilla Warrior” in a National Journal profile and “Ralph Nader with a sense of humor” in a Wall Street Journal profile, she combines a lawyer’s expertise on the terms and outcomes of agreements with insight from the front lines of trade debates. Wallach’s specialty is translating arcane trade issues into accessible language.
Wallach has testified on NAFTA, WTO, and other globalization issues before 30 congressional committees and appeared as a trade commentator on MSNBC, Fox, CNN, ABC, Bloomberg, PBS, NPR and numerous foreign outlets. She has been published and quoted in The New York Times, The Economist, Forbes, The Washington Post, USA Today, the Financial Times, and more. A lawyer who has worked in television news and on political campaigns, Wallach is well-informed about the role trade issues played in the 2016 election and the implications for the Trump presidency and 2018 congressional elections as the voters demand action on trade.
Books she has written on trade include The Rise and Fall of Fast Track Trade Authority (2013) and Whose Trade Organization? A Comprehensive Guide to the WTO (2004) and she has contributed to numerous anthologies. She was recently one of three panelists, alongside Chancellor Angela Merkel, at the C-20 Summit titled “Civil 20 Dialogue with the G20 Presidency” which addressed the most pressing globalization challenges of the 2017 G20 Summit.
Wallach was a founder of the Citizens Trade Campaign, a U.S. national coalition of consumer, labor, environmental, family farm, religious, and civil rights groups representing over 11 million Americans, and serves on its board. Wallach is a graduate of Wellesley College and Harvard Law School.
Panelists
Rep. Rosa DeLauro
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro represents Connecticut’s 3rd Congressional District. As a Member of Congress, Rosa has fought in the trenches with progressive allies to protect and expand opportunities for America’s working families. At the core of her work is building an economic agenda for working men and women to help create jobs and alleviate the economic pressures so many are facing today. Rosa believes that we must create good-paying jobs at home, raise the minimum wage, make college more affordable, and give everyone access to affordable healthcare. Rosa continues to fight for hardworking families to have better wages, equal pay for equal work, affordable child care, and paid family and medical leave.
Other sessions: ALEC's Three-pronged Attack on Working Families and Communities of Color
Keith Ellison
Currently serving as Minnesota’s 30th Attorney General, Keith Ellison is the first African American and first Muslim American to be elected to statewide office in Minnesota. Before becoming AG, Ellison represented Minnesota’s 5th District in Congress where he focused on consumer, worker, environmental, civil- and human-rights protections for Minnesotans. As Minnesota’s AG, Ellison has championed affordable health care, a fair economy, and equal opportunity for all. Ellison has opposed a new rule revoking legal status for immigrants accessing public assistance, created a unit within the office of the Attorney General that focuses on investigating and prosecuting abuse of workers and wage theft, as well as filing lawsuits against opioid manufacturers. Following the killing of George Floyd, Governor Walz appointed AG Ellison to prosecute the case.
Other sessions: The Next Supreme Court: 2016 and the Fight for the Soul of Our Constitution, Making Progressive Issues Presidential: How Debt-free College Became Central to this Election, Grassroots Power: How to Beat the Koch Brothers at Organizing, Ending the Endless War and Advancing a Progressive Global Vision
Ilana Solomon
Ilana Solomon joined the Sierra Club in 2012 to direct the Club’s work on responsible trade. Ilana has authored and co-authored numerous reports and articles on the environmental impacts of trade agreements and trade cases, including on the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. She has served as an expert commentator on trade issues including on Capitol Hill, and she has been quoted in media outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and BBC. Ilana is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, where she blogs about issues related to trade and the environment. Before joining Sierra Club, Ilana was Senior Policy Analyst with ActionAid, a rights-based anti-poverty agency working in 50 countries. Ilana graduated from Oberlin College has a Masters of International Service from the School of International Service (SIS) at American University.