Ep #3: Ira Shapiro, Trade Negotiator & Senate Historian

Ira walks us through the process of how trade deals and their implementation work. From his experience working on NAFTA to working as Chief of Staff for a Senator, he sheds light on what is a uniquely opaque topic, trade. He also touches on the current climate of politics around trade as an issue including what to do with China. He uses real life anecdotes to paint in the details. And we close with a 15 minute history lesson on the Senate and his thoughts on the current state of the Senate.

Ira Shapiro’s Bio: He served as Chief U.S. Trade Negotiator with Japan and Canada, and as General Counsel in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative during the Clinton administration.  In these roles, he was centrally involved in completing the negotiations of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the multilateral Uruguay Round and successfully resolved contentious bilateral disputes between the U.S. and Japan on automobiles and semi-conductors. He also played a key role in the legal team that won two landmark victories in World Trade Organization (WTO) cases against China, representing the U.S. motion picture, recording, and publishing industries. Mr. Shapiro served twelve years in senior staff positions in the U.S. Senate and was part of the legal teams that helped the Presidential candidates select Vice Presidential running mates in 1992 and 2000. A veteran of American politics, Mr. Shapiro is the author of The Last Great Senate: Courage and Statesmanship in Times of Crisis, a critically acclaimed narrative history of the U.S. Senate in the late 1970s.