University of Notre Dame Associate Professor of Global Affairs and Sociology Tamara Kay is available to comment on the negotiations and possible breakdown of the tariff agreement between the US and China. She can be reached at [email protected] or in her office: (574) 631-5789. Notre Dame is equipped with an on-campus studio, so TV and radio interviews are easy to arrange.

In a 2018 article in the Indianapolis Star, Kay said tariff levels among most nations have been very low since WW II. From the piece:

"The problem is we're now in a different ballgame because Trump is using tariffs to ‘weaponize’ trade policy to serve broader political aims, both at home and abroad," she said. "The idea of a 25 percent tariff is unprecedented for the U.S., especially when global tariff levels are generally at or below 5 percent." 

Anti-globalism in the form of Brexit and Trump's rhetoric, she said, has amplified the tariffs and trade issue in politics. 

Kay is the co-author of Trade Battles: Activism and the Politicization of International Trade Policy and she's written extensively about Nafta and its effects on laborers and labor markets worldwide. Her book Nafta and the Politics of Labor Transnationalism illuminates how global governance institutions can play a pivotal role in the development of transnational social movements by providing new arenas for activists to build collective interests, strategies, and trust.

Colleen Sharkey

Assistant Director, Media Relations

University of Notre Dame

(office) 574-631-9958

(cell) 574-999-0102

[email protected] 

 

www.nd.edu I news.nd.edu