Two Democrats, Two World Views on Tech, Trade, and Globalization

Recently, the contrasting perspectives of two very different Democratic leaders have come sharply into focus as they presented forthright accounts of their ideologies. On the one hand, Democratic Representative Suzan DelBene (D-WA) stoutly defended the benefits of US leadership in the global economy, including market-opening trade agreements and support for US technology companies. On the other hand, US Representative Katherine Tai, as she has done throughout her trade tenure, warned of the dangers inherent in traditional US trade liberalization politics that, in her view, have fostered inequality, social injustice, and domestic monopoly.

Rep. DelBene. The congresswoman represents the First District of the state of Washington, with a generally liberal constituency but one that is well-wired into the international economy. Her record reflects this liberal, but globally minded district, with strong emphasis on the environment, abortion rights, healthcare, human rights, and privacy. She serves on the Trade Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee and is a former chair of the (trade friendly) New Democratic Coalition.

Her views are also explained by her varied professional experience. With a high-tech educational background, Rep. DelBene went on to head a software tech company, work at Microsoft for a decade, and then serve as head of the Washington State Department of Revenue.

In an interview with the excellent Center for Strategic and International Studies podcast, The Trade Guys, hosted by William Reinsch and Scott Mill, Rep. DelBene, while careful not to criticize the Biden administration, made clear here differing independent views. For instance, she strongly defended “true” traditional trade agreements, negotiated by the executive and ratified by Congress. She argued that executive agreement, favored by both the Trump and Biden administrations, ultimately were “unenforceable” and could be “ripped up” at any time for future presidents. Congress, in her view, needs to reassert its constitutional role in trade policy, rather than allowing the executive to assume complete control.

She also pushed hard on strong digital trade rules, as embodied in the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (free flow of data, curb data localization, and protection of source code), in contrast to the Biden administrations “pause” in the area—positing that the US should not surrender its current lead in digital technology.

United States Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai. In stark contrast to Rep. DelBene, Katherine Tai approaches US trade and international economic policy from a defensive crouch. In recent remarks at the virulently anti-global, anti-Big Tech Open Market Institute, Tai warned against trade “deal fever,” a warning that is a bit rich, as the Biden administration has not attempted negotiate new trade agreements, and withdrew from negotiations with the UK and Kenya that were initiated during the Trump administration. Indeed, the administration’s highly touted (unenforceable) Asian executive agreement, the Indo-Pacific Economic Forum, notably failed thus far to include a comprehensive trade component, an omission that is largely attributed to the demands of anti-trade progressive Democrats.

Tai, who has criticized previous FTAs under both Democrats and Republican presidents, posited a “new way,” for trade policy though she again failed to define its specific tenets. Rather, in a she instructed trade negotiators to break out of traditional trade “silos” and deal with broader issues such as monopoly, economic opportunity, the environment, and social justice, as examples. She defended the decision (noted above) to pull out of digital trade negotiations in the World Trade Organization to allow more “policy space” for the US, even though United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) digital rules provided for legitimate public policy exceptions. She claimed not to oppose E-commerce negotiations in principle, but insisted on first settling “consequential” issues. Meanwhile, as DelBene warned, others are going forward in writing the rules for the Internet.

Rep. DelBene also expressed hope that a second Biden administration would move forward with international trade negotiations. Given the skeptical views of the current USTR, maybe she should offer to lead that effort herself.