‘If you want to achieve a race to the top, we should start by catching up to the leaders’
WASHINGTON – The Global Business Alliance (GBA) testified before the United States Trade Representative (USTR) on ways the United States can build more resilient supply chains. GBA’s Senior Director of Tax and Trade, Aaron Taylor, emphasized the importance of U.S. trade and investment policy in supporting growth, investment and supply chain resilience.
Read Mr. Taylor’s prepared remarks.
Echoing GBA’s comments submitted to USTR last month, Mr. Taylor answered USTR’s question about how U.S. policies can promote a “race to the top” with like-minded allies regarding labor and environmental protections. He stated the vitality of negotiating new free trade agreements (FTA) with allies and strategic trading partners with strong environmental and labor conditions to incentivize other nations to adopt similar policies.
“If you want to achieve a race to the top, we should start by catching up to the leaders,” said Mr. Taylor.
He referenced the 2022 Environmental Performance Index, which ranks 180 countries on their progress toward improving environmental health and protecting ecosystem vitality, and that the United States ranks 43rd.
Answering the same question, Mr. Taylor urged USTR, as a member of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), to maintain its commitment to the United States’ open investment policy statement and ignore undue political pressure during cross-border investment reviews.
“It should not morph into industrial policy masquerading as national security,” said Mr. Taylor. “Efforts to delay or derail CFIUS reviews could have dire consequences for America’s investment climate.”
GBA urges USTR, along with the Biden-Harris administration, to consider policies that encourage investment from allied countries to deepen economic relationships and build more resilient supply chains.