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Statement from Ambassador Katherine Tai Commemorating World Trade Week

May 20, 2024

From Day One, the Biden-Harris Administration has believed that trade can and must be a force for the common good. 

Under President Biden’s leadership, our Administration is fighting for working families.  Whether you have a college degree or not, whether you have five employees or 500, whether you are in rural Montana or in the heart of Baltimore, whether you are a cranberry farmer in Wisconsin or a steelworker in Pennsylvania, we are restoring fairness and opportunity for you. 

We are vigorously enforcing our existing trade agreements so that hardworking Americans get a fair shot.  We are meeting everyday people where they are so that their voices help shape our work in Washington and beyond.  We are collaborating with other countries to write new, innovative trade rules that advance our shared values and strengthen democracy here at home and abroad. And we are gathering better data to ensure that the benefits of trade reach all Americans, particularly underserved and overburdened communities.

We all see how the world is rapidly changing before our eyes.  The COVID-19 pandemic shed light on where we make important goods, how we move them, and how vulnerable we are to shocks.  We feel the effects of a worsening climate crisis.  Economic inequality persists.  And many of our sectors and industries suffer from the negative effects of unfair trade practices of certain other countries.

Trade alone cannot solve all problems, but it will be a part of the solution, and USTR is determined to use trade to do our part to build our economy from the middle out and the bottom up.  To empower workers everywhere and eliminate forced labor from our supply chains.  To preserve and protect our shared environment.  To defend our communities from the negative effects of unfair trade.  

This World Trade Week, let us renew our devotion to shape a better world through trade, for all peoples. 

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