Lori Wallach (born 1964) is the Director of Rethink Trade at the American Economic Liberties Project and a senior advisor to the Citizens Trade Campaign.[1] She is known for her extensive work translating arcane trade-agreement provisions into what they mean for people's lives and advocating for fair trade policies.[2] She has played a key role in shaping public discourse on trade issues.[3]
Education and early career
Wallach was born in 1964 in Wisconsin, and is of Jewish descent.[4] She graduated from Wellesley College in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. She received her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Harvard Law School in 1990.[5]
Wallach joined Public Citizen’s Litigation Group as the first Supreme Court Assistance Project fellow in 1990. She also founded Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, which she directed for 26 years.[1] Before starting her role at Public Citizen, Wallach worked on Capitol Hill, on electoral campaigns, and in television news.
Career
Wallach, a 30-year veteran of international and U.S. congressional trade battles starting with the 1990s fights over NAFTA and WTO, has an encyclopedic knowledge of trade pacts, policies, outcomes, and politics.[6]
She was named to "Politico’s 50" list of thinkers, doers, and visionaries transforming American politics for her leadership in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) debate in 2016 and has been on Washingtonian's 500 Most Influential list for many years.[7][8] She is an internationally recognized expert on trade with experience advocating in Congress and foreign parliaments, trade negotiations, courts, government agencies, the media, and in the streets. Dubbed "the Trade Debate’s Guerrilla Warrior" in an Atlantic profile and "Ralph Nader with a sense of humor" in a Wall Street Journal profile, Wallach combines a lawyer's expertise on the terms and outcomes of agreements with insight from the front lines of trade debates.[9]
Wallach was a leader in the opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which is the first major U.S. trade agreement that Congress refused to approve.[10] Wallach helped inform Congress and the public about the TPP's threats, including expanding the power of corporations to attack domestic health, labor, and environmental policies; its incentives to offshore U.S. jobs and investment to low-wage countries; its new monopoly powers for Big Pharma to raise medicine prices; and its ban on Buy Local and Buy American procurement. She referred to the TPP as "NAFTA on steroids" and analyzed, exposed and elevated publicly its potential consequences.[11] In a 2021 op-ed for The Washington Post co-written with economist Joseph Stiglitz, Wallach endorsed the waiving of intellectual property (IP) restrictions on COVID-19 vaccines to support global vaccination efforts.[12]
Recognition
Wallach has made numerous appearances on prominent media platforms including MSNBC, CNN, NPR, ABC, CNBC, Fox News, PBS, Bloomberg TV, BBC and C-SPAN.[13][14][15] In addition, she has been quoted extensively in publications such as The New York Times, The Economist, Forbes, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, USA Today, Bloomberg, and The National Journal. She is also a frequent contributor to the Huffington Post, Democracy Now!, and PBS.[16][17]
Representative Rosa DeLauro praised Wallach's "granular knowledge" and stated that Wallach is her "source of information and knowledge."[18]
