Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2021

Status

Accepted

Abstract

This paper, prepared shortly before President Joe Biden was inaugurated, discussed key trade issues for the incoming administration in public procurement. The piece reviewed major trade measures in procurement taken during the Trump administration – most of which were predictable from the time Trump was elected. The paper turned to the major trade challenges that faced the Biden administration, in areas as diverse as climate change, cybersecurity and the protectionism in post-Brexit Europe, and then assessed how the Biden administration might address these challenges, especially given Joe Biden’s support for “Buy American” policies during the 2020 campaign. The paper also assessed how the new administration might cooperate on these difficult issues with the United States’ allies abroad. The paper concluded that the Biden administration’s main challenge was restoring confidence abroad in the United States as a responsible trading partner in procurement; once that goal was met, the paper argued, the more technical issues of trade in procurement would be much easier to address.

GW Paper Series

2021-10

Included in

Law Commons

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