ALI Partners with Ambassador Kirsten Hillman and Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher to Host Conversation on China and International Trade for Freshman Members of Congress

Official Guests

• Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher

• Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen

• Congressman Eric Sorensen

• Ambassador Kirsten Hillman

ALI partnered with Canadian Ambassador Kirsten Hillman and Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher to host New Democrat Coalition Freshman Members for a discussion on the U.S. relationship with China and current international trade policies. The group agreed that the U.S., Canada and their allies need a new shared vision of engagement with China, and the role that trade plays in that vision. Participants acknowledged that traditional trade models face political challenges, but that trade remains an important political and economic tool.

The group discussed how creating new standards on labor, the environment, and human rights among allies will be important to advancing a new values-based sustainable trade paradigm. The group also acknowledged that the U.S. and its allies still haven’t defined what a values-based agreement would look like. There was also a discussion of friendshoring and its important role in this new paradigm, and that new friendshoring policies should be developed.