Toward a New Deal for Global Trade - A Progressive Agenda

The current global trading system has failed to deliver prosperity for most people and is now collapsing under its own contradictions. Built on flawed economic theory and shaped by power asymmetries, the neoliberal order locked developing countries into low-value activities while hollowing out the middle class in advanced economies. More recently, the Trump administration’s approach to trade has exposed how fragile these rules truly are.

This paper diagnoses these failures and proposes a progressive alternative grounded in genuine fairness, national autonomy, and human well-being. It offers concrete reforms to governance structures, intellectual property regimes, and digital trade that could enable broad-based development and sustainable growth. Rather than accepting the current trajectory, Guzmán and Stiglitz show how coalitions of countries committed to principled rules might construct a trading system that works for workers, developing economies, and the planet.

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