Democratizing U.S. Trade Policy

The lack of political and public consensus over American trade policy plagues efforts to further liberalize trade and spur economic growth. To develop a trade policy with widespread support, the Council on Foreign Relations assembled a group of representatives with diverse interests and points of view and produced this paper. It examines the important issues of reform in presidential trade-negotiating authority, the way Congress organizes itself to deal with trade, the relationship between the government’s trade and regulatory agencies, the public advisory system used by the executive branch and the operations of the World Trade Organization.