Katherine Tai, the U.S. commerce consultant, made a case Thursday to make use of commerce insurance policies to struggle local weather change, dedicating her first speech in her new place to addressing one in every of President Biden’s priorities. .
“For too lengthy, the standard enterprise neighborhood has resisted the view that commerce coverage is a authentic software to assist resolve the local weather disaster,” Ms. Tai in a digital occasion held by the Heart for American Progress.
“As we now have seen so typically with labor points, there may be some refuge within the argument that all the things is a matter of nationwide coverage and that we don’t must face the big job of constructing a global consensus round new guidelines, ”he stated. “However this dated line of pondering perpetuates solely the gulf that exists between lived experiences and the expectations of actual folks on the one hand and enterprise consultants on the opposite.”
In her remarks, Ms. Tai spoke of the necessity to cope with unlawful exploitation and overfishing. And he introduced an argument why it was important to handle environmental points as a part of commerce agreements.
“For too lengthy, we now have believed that commerce liberalization will result in a gradual enchancment of environmental safety as nations develop richer by rising commerce flows,” he stated. “However the actuality is that the system itself creates an incentive to compete whereas sustaining decrease requirements. Or worse, even decreasing these requirements.”
Ms.’s speech. Tai comes every week earlier than Mr. Biden is scheduled to welcome world leaders at a digital local weather summit. His speech is one other instance of how the Biden administration seeks to handle local weather change throughout the huge breadth of federal authorities – not simply in companies usually related to environmental stewardship.
Mr Biden signed an govt order in January saying the local weather can be “an important factor of US overseas coverage and nationwide safety”, and his proposed spending for fiscal 12 months 2022 requires billions of {dollars} in new climate-related spending throughout the federal authorities.
