Opinion: Biden, don’t be afraid of trade

The Biden administration, from its early days in office, showed little interest in pursuing traditional free trade deals. This reluctance has continued, even as inflation ticked up and economists were suggesting that lowering tariffs might be a way to combat rising prices. The administration’s “trade shy” behavior, however, is likely based on a flawed domestic political calculus: that White, working-class voters left the Democratic Party in 2016 in large part because of the Republican Party’s adoption of anti-trade rhetoric, and that these voters will never return to Democrats if they are perceived to be pro-free trade.