The pitch for trade

Grassroots connections between trade and prosperity key in the fight for hearts and minds over international commerce    The business community needs a more effective and sustained strategy for communicating to a skeptical public that trade with other countries is, on balance, a big plus for jobs and wage growth, lobbyists and public relations professionals affiliated with goods movement said during a panel discussion in Washington last week.
   During the presidential campaign, President Donald Trump and Democrat primary candidate Bernie Sanders tapped into grassroots anxiety about a declining standard of living for working-class American, helping to create a narrative that outsourcing and cheap imports solely were to blame for the decline of the manufacturing sector.
   Public opinion against free trade deals grew so strong that many pro-trade Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill were silenced, preventing the ratification of the multilateral Trans-Pacific Partnership.
   Trump rode his populist message to the White House. Now industry groups are rethinking their message in hopes of changing attitudes towards global economic linkages, which they say ultimately generates more growth than isolationism.
   With the administration still in an education phase about trade as it tries to staff agencies with political appointees and develop a concrete agenda beyond the rhetoric, it is a key time for business groups to influence policymaking, the industry representatives said at the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) spring conference.
   The AAPA itself is “attempting to find messages that tell stories we think will resonate with the White House and some of the protectionists,” said Don Meyer, president of Westfourth Communications. “We are trying to take a page from the Hillbilly Elegy playbook and focus on what trade means for some of those forgotten areas of the country, particularly in manufacturing and agricultural exports from non-coastal areas.”
   Westfourth is the AAPA’s communications consultant, helping the trade association get its message out to decision-makers in Washington about the importance to commerce and the economy of transportation infrastructure investment.

We are trying to take a page from the Hillbilly Elegy playbook and focus on what trade means for some of those forgotten areas of the country, particularly in manufacturing and agricultural exports from non-coastal areas.

   Hillbilly Elegy, a New York Times bestseller, is J.D. Vance’s first-person analysis of the cultural crisis in white working-class America, where Trump’s message of nationalism and reversal of white decline resonated during the election.
   The comments follow those in recent weeks by some private sector representatives that the business community has not done a good job explaining to American workers and consumers how trade benefits them and that it needs to make the case consistently, not just when trade legislation or agreements are voted on.
   Jonathan Gold, vice president supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation, urged business groups to advocate for trade policies that go beyond narrow interests tied to a particular piece of the supply chain.
   “I know the infrastructure mission is number one for ports, but you need to engage on trade too when lobbying on the Hill,” Gold told port directors and their staffs. “We can’t sit on the sidelines anymore. We really need to be out there telling the positive trade story.”
   Anecdotes about companies that have succeeded with imports or exports, or face challenges because of trade barriers, carry weight with lawmakers, said Christopher Wenk, executive director for international policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber has a media program called “Faces of Trade” in which small business exporters are profiled and “we need to be doing a lot more of that,” he added.
   Meanwhile, the AAPA is also changing the way it uses social media, Meyer said. Rather than simply post pictures and notices about port-related community events and the latest achievements, the association is using Twitter, Facebook and other platforms to drive its positions on policy.
   “It makes life a lot more interesting trying to explain policy in 140 characters,” Gold said. “It makes our job more difficult. It’s easy for opponents to bash trade on social media. Talking about the benefits to consumers is much more difficult. We have to find new ways to promote trade.”
   The panelists discussed the challenges of having a president who habitually uses Twitter and does not hesitate to criticize companies. Corporate public relations strategies have to include steps to stay on Trump’s good side to avoid a negative tweet and then have the capability to quickly respond if that happens, Gold said.