Hello and welcome to another edition of the MLEX podcast. I'm Leon Ehrlich's chief global

antitrust correspondent in Washington, D.C. This week saw a ton of trade news in the U.S. Democrats,

who are currently in the minority in both chambers of Congress, outlined their new agenda related

to trade. The proposals, which the Democrats have taken to calling a better deal in an effort to evoke

FDR's famous New Deal of the early 20th century, would revamp U.S. trade laws and introduce

a new prosecutor to enact restrictions outside WTO authority. Here to walk us through it all is

Adam Siegel, I'm Lex's trade reporter in D.C. Hello, Adam.

Hello.

So first, Adam, tell us about the new Democratic trade proposals. What are they suggesting and how likely is it to come to pass?

Well, the how likely is it to come to pass is definitely going to be the harder question.

First of all, no legislation has been introduced yet. Likely, we'll see something specific in September, but we don't really know what the Democrats

want because the Democrats have just really put out a statement of policy.

And even the House Democrats are saying that they're not going to sign on to any specific

plan until they see legislation coming forward.

The Democrats are in the minority, which means that they can't really introduce or get

legislation to the floor on their own.

But a lot of the things that they're proposing are things that have been supported in the

past by Senate Republicans as well.

And there are a lot of Republicans who have said pretty much the same

stuff. Rob Portman, for example, it would be pretty easy for them to find 50 votes if they can get

something past Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell is the Senate majority leader for the Republicans. And

because of that, he controls a lot of the legislative agenda in the Senate.

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