This is the Cato Daily podcast for Monday, June 29th, 2020.

I'm Caleb Brown.

He's not saying much in public or otherwise, but many polls are showing that

former Vice President Joe Biden has a significant

lead in the presidential race.

So on the issue of trade, what would a President Biden do?

And does Congress appear likely to claw back any of the massive authorities vested in a

president with respect to trade policy.

Simon Lester is a trade policy analyst at the Cato Institute.

We spoke last week.

I can recall our colleague Dan Eikinson talking about the Obama administration's trade policy and what that looked like and I remember the disappointment that he

expressed over the manner in which President Obama sold trade and so specifically free trade agreements as beneficial.

He seemed to say, well we have to do this in order to get some specific benefit from these other countries and yeah

we'll be we'll have to deal with the consequences of that as if trade is not you know

a positive sum game.

And so what should we expect from a Joe Biden presidency

with respect to trade?

What do we know about what he has to say about it?

I think that one big difference between a Biden and an Obama trade policy is

the circumstances under which it started. So you know Obama came into office in the

midst of the financial crisis. Biden and following up on the Bush administration which had been somewhat pro trade.

Biden, if he were elected, would take office under a number of different crises, but also

...