The writer is the US trade representative

During the peak of the pandemic, the Financial Times wrote of the need for a new “social contract that benefits everyone” and for radical reforms to reverse “the prevailing policy direction of the last four decades”. Poignantly, the piece noted that, just as the Atlantic Charter and Bretton Woods conference had crystallised during the thick of the second world war, leaders must act today to win the peace.

As an integral part of economic policy, trade must also be a part of any social contract; it must undergo its own transformation. Here, the Atlantic Charter of 1941 also provides a guidepost. It stated that international economic co-operation is to be pursued “with the object of securing, for all, improved labour standards, economic advancement, and social security”. This is not a call for trickle-down economic policy, but a call for economic policy to serve the interests of working people.