(Reuters) – U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said on Thursday that global trade policy makers should not try to recreate the pre-pandemic trading system but should build one that is more resilient, sustainable and supportive of higher living standards.
Speaking in a virtual panel of the World Economic Forum, Tai cautioned against a backward-looking “return to normalcy” after two years of COVID-19-induced disruptions.
“I think that it is time for us to acknowledge that our goal really shouldn’t be to try to go back to the way the world was, say in 2019, but to take lessons, very hard earned lessons, very painful lessons that we have experienced over the past two years and take this opportunity to build toward something that is different and better,” Tai said.
(Reporting by David Lawder, Editing by Franklin Paul)
