In a world with a lot of questions about free trade, US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky is the woman with Bill Clinton’s answer.
Her job is to persuade the doubters that free and open trade is the road not only to prosperity but democracy.
Barshefsky is known as a tough as nails negotiator, famous for her going without sleep for days at a time, for her knowledge of the fine print, and for her governing sense of the big picture. She’s laughed out loud at Japan’s minister of finance, blasted American business interests, and forged the biggest deal with China since the Open Door.
But the constituency she needs to win over now isn’t across the negotiating table, it’s in her own back yard: all those labor leaders, environmentalists, human rights activists, and anyone else who doesn’t buy the free trade evangelism of the Clinton administration.
Trading talk with Charlene Barshefsky in this hour of The Connection.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Guests:
Charlene Barshefsky