Politico Pro Morning Trade 

By Doug Palmer 

A coalition of nearly 50 business groups representing a broad cross section of the economy has asked for a meeting with White House officials to discuss how to create a more commercially meaningful trade agenda. 

“We support the Biden Administration’s goal of ensuring that U.S. trade policy accounts for the interests of all Americans,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other groups said in a letter to top White House aides Jake Sullivan and Lael Brainard. “However, at present, rising trade barriers threaten the livelihoods of American farmers, ranchers, artists, innovators, and manufacturing and service workers who depend on two-way trade flows.” 

The correspondence reflects frustration in the business community over the Biden administration’s failure to negotiate new market-opening agreements to expand US exports, its decision to maintain many of the tariffs that former President Donald Trump imposed during his four years in office, and the Office of the US Trade Representative’s reversal on several longstanding US positions regarding digital trade. 

The signatories included groups from the US agriculture, automotive, aerospace, chemical, consumer product, energy, finance, food and beverage, insurance, health care, hospitality, manufacturing, media, natural resources, retail, semiconductor, technology, telecommunication, textiles and transportation sectors. 

“For the Administration to ensure the success of its domestic economic agenda, we believe it urgent to build a more effective policy foundation for external engagement, leveraging US strengths and the goodwill the United States still enjoys in foreign markets in championing rules-based frameworks for trade,” the groups wrote. 

Read More>>

Original Posting: https://subscriber.politicopro.com/newsletter/2024/07/biz-groups-seek-white-house-meeting-on-trade-00167701