In today’s Cato Online Forum essay, the AFL-CIO’s Celeste Drake asserts that labor unions are not opposed to trade per se, but to neo-liberal trade deals that only benefit corporate entities. Drake argues that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership offers a good opportunity to change the nature of trade agreements to include progressive, standard-raising provisions that promote inclusive growth and shared prosperity. She concludes:

No one believes that righting the course of globalization and trade will be quick or easy. But if the process is to begin, the TTIP, with informed, active and engaged civil society on both sides of the Atlantic, seems an opportune place to make a stand to change the rules: not to stop trade, but to use it as a tool to achieve a global economy that works for all.

Celeste’s essay is offered in conjunction with a Cato Institute conference on the TTIP taking place October 12. Read it. Provide feedback. And please register to attend the conference.