Nearly half of the global economy’s rules are up for grabs this week as the U.S. trade representative and secretary of Commerce convene trade ministers from 13 Pacific Rim nations in Los Angeles. Their task is to launch negotiations for a proposed Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) trade deal.

I want President Biden’s team to succeed in creating the “worker-centered” agreements the president pledged. To win a very wary public’s support for any Indo-Pacific deal, negotiators need to go in recognizing some major potential pitfalls.

Across the political spectrum, the public is united in thinking trade agreements emerge from a corrupt, secretive process. They think America’s billionaires and corporate monopolies, U.S. oil giants, pharmaceutical, Big Tech and telecommunications corporations, along with their lobbyists — write the rules.

My organization, Democracy Corps, conducted focus groups in July with service sector workers in Philadelphia, Republican men in Houston and Fort Worth and college-educated voters in Seattle. When asked about “trade agreements,” I realized they looked at it through a pretty distrustful first filter: Who has the power to shape them?

The full article can be read at The Hill.