Ep. 8 – WITA’s Friday Exchange: The Trade Reporters on Trump’s Tariffs, Truths, and Trade
Watch or listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Former Trade Negotiators Discuss This Week’s Tariff and Trade Developments.
No one understands the dynamics with key U.S. trading partners better than the people who led these kinds of difficult trade negotiations for the United States. Panelists will update our viewers on the trade policy announcements, what remains undone; and what are expected next steps in these trade negotiations.
Trade policy during the Trump Administration varies drastically in both how it’s carried out and how it’s reported to the public. In this episode, the expert Trade Reporters will cover what makes Trump’s trade policy, its development, negotiation process, and priorities, so different from past administrations and the obstacles they’ve faced reporting on it.
To order David Lynch’s new book, “The World’s Worst Bet: How the Globalization Gamble Went Wrong (And What Would Make It Right)” – https://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Worst-B…
Featured Speakers
Shawn Donnan
Senior Writer
Bloomberg
Shawn Donnan is a Senior Writer for Economics at Bloomberg News, based in Washington, D.C., where he covers trade policy, tariffs, and the intersection of economics with global politics. He previously spent nearly 16 years at the Financial Times, serving as World Trade Editor covering trade, development, the IMF, and the World Bank, and earlier as World News Editor overseeing the FT’s global economics and politics coverage. Earlier in his career, he was the FT’s Jakarta Correspondent, leading coverage of Indonesia during the 2002 Bali bombings and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Donnan holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Affairs from Boston University.
David Lynch
Global Economics Correspondent
The Washington Post
David J. Lynch is the global economics correspondent for The Washington Post. Previously, he was a Washington correspondent for the Financial Times, covering white-collar crime; Politico’s cybersecurity editor; and, a senior writer with Bloomberg News, where he wrote about national security and political economy. At USA TODAY from 1994 to 2010, he followed the global economy and was the newspaper’s founding bureau chief in both London and Beijing. He covered the wars in Kosovo and Iraq, the latter as an embedded reporter with the U.S. Marines, and was the paper’s first recipient of a Nieman fellowship at Harvard University. He has reported from more than 60 countries.
During more than four decades as a journalist, Lynch also worked as a financial writer specializing in the aerospace and defense industries for The Orange County Register in southern California. In the 1980s, he was the editor of Defense Week, a Washington, D.C., trade publication covering national security.
He is the author of When The Luck Of The Irish Ran Out: The World’s Most Resilient Country and Its Struggle to Rise Again, an account of modern Ireland’s journey from rags to riches and back again, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2010.
An experienced public speaker, Lynch has made television appearances on CNN, Fox, C-SPAN and PBS in the United States and BBC and Sky News in London. Recent speaking engagements included lecturing Chinese business journalists in Xi’an.
Lynch has a master’s degree in international relations from Yale University and a B.A. in government from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Ct. He lives in northern Virginia with his wife Kathleen and their three sons.
Ana Swanson
Trade and International Economics Correspondent
New York Times
Ana Swanson covers trade and international economics for The New York Times, based in Washington, D.C. Her reporting focuses on U.S. trade policy and tariffs, the U.S.-China economic relationship, technology export restrictions, and America’s trade ties with Europe, Canada, and Mexico. Before joining The Times, she covered the economy, trade, and the Federal Reserve at The Washington Post, and previously served as editor in chief of China Economic Review in Shanghai.
Swanson was part of a reporting team that won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, and she is a regular contributor to American Public Media’s Marketplace. She holds a master’s degree in international relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, with a focus on China and international economics, and spent eight years living and working in China.
Wendy Cutler
Senior Vice President; former Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative
Asia Society Policy Institute
Wendy Cutler is Senior Vice President at the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI), based in Washington, D.C. In this role, she focuses on leading initiatives that address challenges related to trade, investment, economic security, and innovation, as well as women’s empowerment in Asia. She joined ASPI following an illustrious career of nearly three decades as a diplomat and negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), where she also served as Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative. During her USTR career, she worked on a range of bilateral, regional, and multilateral trade negotiations and initiatives, including the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, U.S.-China negotiations, and the WTO Financial Services negotiations. She has published a series of ASPI papers on the Asian trade landscape and serves as a regular media commentator on trade and investment developments in Asia and the world.
