Competing Visions on Trade: A Race to the Bottom Vs. Building the Middle Class (with Thea Lee featuring Todd Tucker)

Oct 28, 2025

Thea Lee, an economist and former Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor, joins Todd Tucker, a political scientist and trade expert at the Roosevelt Institute. They debate the need for labor rights in trade and how past agreements have exploited workers. Lee highlights the success of USMCA in enforcing labor protection, while Tucker discusses how industrial policy can bolster domestic supply chains. Together, they argue for a shift towards worker-centered trade that strengthens both democracy and economic stability.

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INSIGHT

Trade Is About Workers, Not Just Goods

Trade must include worker rights because production depends on workers, not just goods traded.
Thea Lee argues labor protections are central to judging trade's social effects.

INSIGHT

ILO Principles As A Global Floor

Use ILO's core labor rights as a global floor, not a ceiling, for trade rules.
Lee lists freedom of association, collective bargaining, and bans on child and forced labor as essentials.

ADVICE

Make Brands Own Their Supply Chains

Reconnect brands to responsibility across their full supply chains and increase transparency.
Thea Lee urges firms to own working conditions tied to their name and products.

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In the final episode of our Trade series, Nick and Goldy talk with Thea Lee, former Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor, to challenge the core assumption behind decades of U.S. trade policy: That trade is about efficiency, not power.

Lee explains how past trade deals were written to protect capital while ignoring worker exploitation abroad—a model that suppressed wages overseas and undercut American workers at home. She also makes the case that worker-centered trade isn’t hypothetical anymore by pointing to the US–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA), where labor rights were finally enforced with the same seriousness as intellectual property, resulting in real wage gains and democratic union elections in Mexico.

This conversation lays out the choice clearly: Trade can strengthen middle classes, democracy, and supply chain resilience, or it can deepen inequality and instability. This episode makes the argument for choosing the first option on purpose, not by accident.

Thea Lee is an economist and longtime advocate of pro-worker trade policy who most recently served as Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor, where she focused on global labor protections, including enforcing labor rights under trade agreements and combating forced and child labor worldwide.

Todd Tucker is a political scientist, author, and the Director of Industrial Policy and Trade at the Roosevelt Institute and Roosevelt Forward, where he leads work on how national and global institutions shape economic transformation. He’s the author of Judge Knot: Politics and Development in International Investment Law.

Social Media:

@theameilee.bsky.social

@TheaMeiLee

@toddntucker.com

@toddntucker