This person is no longer with the Carnegie Endowment.
Sandra Polaski has been sworn in as deputy undersecretary for international affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB). From 2002 to 2009 she was senior associate and director of the Trade, Equity, and Development Program at the Carnegie Endowment.
Previously, from 1999 to 2002, Polaski served as the U.S. secretary of state’s special representative for international labor affairs, the senior State Department official dealing with such matters. In that role she integrated labor and employment issues into U.S. trade and foreign policy and served as the lead adviser on labor provisions in the U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement and the U.S.-Cambodia Textile Agreement, considered models for future agreements. Previously she served as director of research at the secretariat of the North American Commission for Labor Cooperation, a NAFTA-related intergovernmental organization.
Polaski holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin and Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
Selected Publications: India's Trade Policy Choices (Carnegie Report, January 2008); U.S. Living Standards in an Era of Globalization (Carnegie Policy Brief, July 2007); China's Economic Prospects 2006-2020 (Carnegie Paper, April 2007)
India would be six times better off under a multilateral trade agreement in the WTO’s Doha Round than from individual free trade agreements with the EU, United States, or China, contends a new report from the Carnegie Endowment. However, by lifting agricultural tariffs under a Doha agreement, India could lose more than it gained if prices of key commodities such as rice and wheat continue to swing sharply as they have in the past.
Senior Associate Sandra Polaski argues that globalization revealed and exacerbated—rather than created—the unequal distribution of U.S. economic gains over the last decades. Polaski contends that reform of domestic labor laws, the tax system and international economic policy are the policy tools needed to reverse stagnating incomes and the erosion of job security, health care and pension plans.
A new report by the Carnegie Endowment and China’s Development Research Center shows that the health of China’s economy and trade over the next 15 years will have more impact on China’s rural poor than any other segment of Chinese society. The report also finds that while WTO accession has generally benefited China’s economy, it has further increased the already pronounced economic disparity between Chinese urban and rural households. Accession to the WTO has added only a net thirteen million jobs while an estimated 300 million jobs are needed to create full employment in China.
