Wendy Cutler is the vice president and managing director of the Asia Society Policy Institute. She last served as an acting deputy U.S. trade representative under former president Barack Obama, following three decades of experience as a career U.S. trade negotiator.
To help expand and sustain America’s middle class, U.S. foreign policy makers need a new agenda that will rebuild trust at home and abroad.
As millions of Americans contend with lost wages and savings due to the coronavirus, the challenge of making U.S. foreign policy work harder for the middle class is even more vital.
While the U.S. economy has been growing and unemployment rates have fallen, too many Americans still struggle to sustain a middle-class lifestyle. Are changes to U.S. foreign policy required to better advance the economic well-being of America’s middle class?
Policymakers need to explore ways to make U.S. foreign policy work better for America’s middle class, even if their economic fortunes depend largely on domestic factors and policies.
The United States and Japan have one of the most important relationships in the world, based on shared values, the size of their economies, and their technological sophistication. New cooperation between the U.S. and Japan will benefit not only the two countries but also the whole Asia-Pacific region, possibly providing the building blocks for an Asia-Pacific partnership.
