THE TTALK QUOTES


On Global Trade & Investment
Published Three Times a Week (with occasional bonus quotes) by
The Global Business Dialogue, Inc.
Washington, DC  20006
No.47 of 2020
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2020

Click HERE for yesterday's quote on USMCA and enforcement.
HOW HAS COVID-19 AFFECTED TRADE ?

"The biggest single problem is you don't have face-to-face meetings."
Amb. Robert Lighthize r
June 17, 2020
CONTEXT
Like yesterday’s featured quote, today’s is from the first hour of USTR Robert Lighthizer ’s testimony last Wednesday before the House Committee on Ways and Means.  Rep. Vern Buchanan, a Republican from Florida, talked about the potential for new agreements with the UK, the EU “and even China,” and asked the ambassador, “ As you look at the pandemic, what do you see?”

In response, Ambassador Lighthizer first mentioned the challenges the pandemic poses for his job of negotiating agreements. He then turned to the impact it has had on trade flows. Here is more from Ambassador Lighthizer’s response: 

As a practical matter, the biggest single problem is you don’t have face-to-face meetings.  And I’m not one that believes you’re ever going to negotiate a major trade deal over video or over the telephone. I just don’t think it’s possible. I may be wrong about that, but I see no evidence… . The telephone, the video tends to be scripted sort of things, and you end up not having 10, 12, 15 hours together arguing in a room, which, I think, is necessary to come to compromise . So that’s the biggest problem.

If you look at its [COVID’s] effect on trade, trade during this Pandemic is down substantially. Exports are down about 30 percent, more or less, and imports probably a little less, and the effect seems to be about what you would expect. You’re just getting clobbered in the services area like travel and leisure and all these kinds of things. It’s kind of predictable where we have been hit. ….

I’m also one who believes that there is pent up demand. When we get to the other side of this, ….very soon we’re going to end up with that being turned around very fast.  
COMMENT
For us, today’s quote illustrates the importance Ambassador Lighthizer attaches to the human dimension of trade policy and trade negotiations, that is, to the dynamic of people with common goals but different perspectives working through their differences to agreement. For him, it is clearly not an extraneous flourish but something constant and essential like a continuo in a Baroque composition. It came through several times in last week’s Ways and Means Committee hearing on the President’s trade policy.  

Ambassador Lighthizer was the only witness, and his first words illustrated the point. They were: 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman [Neal] , Ranking Member Brady.   Let me say, first of all, that over these last few months, I’ve actually missed seeing the members of the Ways and Means Committee.  I know you have never heard a United States Trade Representative say that before in history, but in fact it is true. We’ve had calls, but I look forward to the time when we actually get back to traditional legislation in the historic way that we have done it for all these many years.  

The same theme, the value of personal contacts and relationships, came through when he was being questioned by Representative Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat. Mr. Doggett was speaking (we assume) from his home. Ambassador Lighthizer asked that his screen show not his own face but Representative Doggett’s because, Ambassador Lighthizer said, “I want to see what kind of reaction I get when I’m talking.”

And, of course, that same concern for normal human interaction as the bedrock for progress in trade was expressed when Ambassador Lighthizer responded to Rep. Buchanan’s question about COVID-19 and trade negotiations, giving rise to today’s quote.  
SOURCES AND LINKS
At Ways and Means is a link to the YouTube video of the June 17 Ways and Means Committee hearing with Ambassador Lighthizer. This was the source for today’s featured quote as well as most of the others. 

Opening Statemen t is a link to this statement by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal at the June 17 hearing on the President’s Trade Policy. 
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