Michael Froman on the New 'Polyamorous' Global Trading System
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Hello and welcome to another episode of the Oddlots Podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.
And I'm Tracy Alloway.
Tracy, you know, we're several months, I guess like five months or so recording this September sixteenth. Five months or so since Liberation Day, since the uh trade war started. Pine large. The world is still kind of working, right? You can see its effects for sure in certain categories and so forth, but by and large I don't think the contours of the economy look that much different than they did, say, in March or April.
Look, I'm still missing my auction item that's supposed to be mailed from the Netherlands. So it has affected me directly.
Wait, what happened with it? Wait, wait, say more.
So I I won something from a Dutch auction house and um they were supposed to mail it in house shipping and instead of mailing it, they sent out an email saying that they can't mail it because everyone's trying to figure out the new tariff schedule and customs and things like that. Oh that's annoying. I still haven't heard from them.
But it still feels like something happened. Kind of a hard to imagine going to a March twenty twenty five world again, but also hard to imagine going to a pre-Trump One world ever. Like it's hard for me to imagine that in my lifetime that there will ever be a sort of twenty fifteen style trading relationship between the US and China. Well I could be wrong. Never
say never, but
it's just hard for me to see at this point.
At this point, like it's not a single administration thing, right? We've had Trump one point oh and then Biden continued a lot of the tariffs and even added some new ones, and then we have Trump two point oh which is arguably going even harder on China. So it does seem like at least a durable trend, not a flash in the pan.
And as we've discussed, you mentioned the fact that Biden was a continuation, arguably an expansion of Trump One, particularly with some of the export restrictions on technology. Um, yeah, this is one of the rare trade rethinking the global trading system, whatever that means, is one of the rare areas of bipartisan consensus in DC as as has come up in many episodes.
Yeah, that and housing.
Uh that and housing. Right. That housing is very expensive. We really do have the perfect guest, someone who has a very big picture view on trade, someone who has been directly involved in trade negotiations, someone who remembers the sort of pre Trump one
the long, long, long ago.
The long, long, long ago global trading system and uh who could talk about whatever remnants of that are left, or even maybe who can explain to me what the global trading system was. We're gonna be speaking with Michael Froman. He is the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, and he was the former US trade representative during the Obama uh Obama two administration, twenty thirteen to twenty seventeen, has continued to write a lot about this. Topic. So uh Michael Froman, thank you so much for uh coming out Outlaws. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. What does the US trade representative do? You you had that job. I actually realized I don't really know.
Like it's one it's a great job. Um it really has the function of negotiating trade agreements. Okay. Um and enforcing US trade rights under previous agreements. Um The reason I love the job is that it combines high diplomacy, sitting down with ministers, presidents, prime ministers of other countries trying to reach agreements, with having to have a really detailed understanding of elements of the US economy.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–16:57
2
What was the original post‑World‑War‑II global trading system?
16:57–18:37
3
How did Michael Froman’s role as U.S. Trade Representative shape trade negotiations?
18:37–31:22
4
Why did the multilateral rules‑based system start to break down before Trump?
31:22–43:49
5
How did China’s rise and state‑led policies stress the existing trade order?
43:49–48:10
Speakers
8 identifiedMore from Odd Lots
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