COVID-19 and the U.S.–Japan Trade Agreement, Phase 2

COVID-19 has inspired doctors and scientists to collaborate around the world in pursuit of a vaccine. Trade policy needs to help, not hurt, these efforts. The next phase of the U.S.–Japan trade agreement should show the way.

The medical response to COVID-19 has been amazing. The time from RNA sequencing of COVID-19 to clinical trials of a vaccine was a mere 65 days, not the several years it took for SARS. Doctors and scientists talk about the need to respond to COVID-19 by learning and even sharing across borders.

In contrast, a lot of the trade talk to date has centered on the need to re-shore medical supply chains around the world (i.e. bring them back home). COVID-19 has led countries to misguidedly impose import and export restrictions on items ranging from soap to masks.