Politics & Power Quote by Richard Neal

“Trade can really be good” is doing a lot of political work in just seven words. Richard Neal isn’t offering a love letter to globalization; he’s making a careful, conditional pitch to a skeptical public that has learned to hear “trade” and think plant closures, wage pressure, and distant boardrooms. The key term is “can”: it’s a permission slip, not a guarantee. In an era where both parties have flirted with protectionism, Neal’s language tries to salvage the idea of open markets without sounding naive about their casualties.

The phrase also stitches together two constituencies that often get pitted against each other: “American workers” and “American businesses.” Putting workers first is deliberate. It’s a signal to labor and to Democratic voters that the old trickle-down framing (“trade is good for businesses, so it’ll be good for you”) won’t fly. At the same time, “American businesses” reassures exporters, multinationals, and chamber-of-commerce types that he’s not proposing a blanket retreat from global supply chains.

The subtext: trade is politically viable only if it comes with guardrails. Neal is implicitly endorsing the modern Democratic line that agreements must include enforceable labor standards, environmental rules, and anti-offshoring incentives, plus domestic policies that help workers bargain and retrain. This is less a sweeping economic claim than a coalition-management statement: trade, yes, but only the kind that can survive a town hall.