The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 signed by President Biden in August 2022 created new incentives for the manufacture and purchase of electric vehicles in the United States.
On October 27, panelists discussed provisions requiring U.S. content and U.S. manufacturing to qualify for certain of these incentives; what that means for inbound investors, and America’s trading relationships; and whether the new provisions will help America achieve its near-term and long-term climate objectives.
Featured Speakers:
Ben Beachy, Vice President of Manufacturing and Industrial Policy, BlueGreen Alliance
David Henig, Director of the UK Trade Policy Project, European Centre for International Political Economy
Jennifer Safavian, President & CEO, Autos Drive America
Moderator: John Magnus, President, TRADEWINS, LLC
Speaker Biographies:
Ben Beachy
Ben Beachy is the Vice President of Manufacturing and Industrial Policy at the BlueGreen Alliance. Ben has worked to transform economic policies for two decades in organizations fighting for climate equity, workers’ and immigrants’ rights, racial justice, and public health.
Ben joined BGA after seven years at the Sierra Club, where he founded the Living Economy program to build cross-movement backing for investment, trade, procurement, and industrial policies that simultaneously create good jobs, tackle climate change, and curb racial, economic, and gender inequity. Ben also has advocated for a new trade model with Public Citizen in DC, researched climate impacts with ActionAid in India, investigated labor abuses with the Worker Rights Consortium in Honduras, written on the financial crisis with the Global Development and Environment Institute in Boston, and pushed to transform U.S. economic policies with Witness for Peace in Nicaragua.Ben received a Master in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he was a Public Service Fellow. Ben hails from West Virginia, has Mennonite roots, and lives in Washington, DC.
David Henig
David Henig is the Director of the UK Trade Policy Project at the European Centre for International Political Economy. A leading expert on the development of UK Trade Policy post Brexit, in 2017 he co-founded the UK Trade Forum, which brings together UK trade policy experts to debate and analyse these issues.
He joined ECIPE in 2018 having worked on trade and investment issues for the UK Government for a number of years. He was heavily engaged on TTIP throughout the three and a half years of negotiations, working with both sets of negotiators to develop ways forward particularly on regulatory coherence, TBT, and sustainable development. He also travelled extensively through the EU making the case for TTIP with Member State Governments and stakeholders. After the UK referendum vote he helped establish the new Department for International Trade, engaging in many of the UK’s first working groups with non-EU countries, and setting out options for engagement with the US. Prior to TTIP he was involved with investment policy, the OECD and international rules based system, and business policy towards China.
David started his career before Government in consulting and business development, having graduated from Oxford University. He is bringing all of this experience together in a project examining and evaluating the UK’s performance in preparing for and delivering effective trade policy.
Jennifer Safavian
Jennifer Safavian is the President & CEO of Autos Drive America. She was named Autos Drive America first president and CEO in April 2020. She is an accomplished government relations professional with two decades of policy experience both in government and the private sector.
Before joining Autos Drive America, Safavian was Executive Vice President for Government Affairs at the Retail Industry Leaders Association. Prior to holding that position, she spent the majority of her career on Capitol Hill, serving as Staff Director and General Counsel on the House Ways & Means Committee, and holding senior positions on other key House Committees, including Energy & Commerce and Oversight & Government Reform.
Among her various accolades, Safavian was named one of the “Top Trade Association Lobbyists” by The Hill for three consecutive years from 2017-2019. She has been named by the National Law Journal as one of the “Top 10 Lawyers on Capitol Hill” and one of the “Fabulous 50” top congressional staff members by Roll Call. Safavian has a J.D. from Michigan State University College of Law and holds a B.A. from Saint Louis University.
John Magnus
John Magnus is the President of TRADEWINS LLC where he has been an active trade practitioner for 32 years, serving as external counsel to domestic and foreign firms and industry coalitions in sectors such as steel, energy, forest products, chemicals, microelectronics, aerospace, textiles/apparel, footwear, tobacco, livestock, photographic materials, home appliances, insurance, beverage alcohol, telecommunications, motion pictures and cable television.
He advises and represents clients on multilateral negotiations and World Trade Organization (WTO) disputes; on regional and bilateral trade initiatives; on U.S. trade legislation and Congressional oversight activities; on market access cases involving goods and services; on foreign governments’ trade regimes and industrial policy measures; and on customs and compliance issues. He also advises foreign governments on their trade regimes and implementation of WTO rules.
Mr. Magnus has litigated numerous antidumping, countervailing duty and other import-related cases before the U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. International Trade Commission, as well as reviewing their courts and binational panels. He has also handled Section 301 market access cases before the Office of U.S. Trade Representative and helped to defend U.S. measures, and prosecute U.S. complaints, in numerous GATT/WTO dispute settlement proceedings.
With a secondary niche in competition law and policy, Mr. Magnus advises clients on domestic and (especially) international antitrust policy and enforcement issues. He has worked extensively on foreign antitrust and state aid control regimes as well as efforts toward multilateral competition rules and cooperative enforcement.
From 1990-2004, Mr. Magnus was associated with Dewey Ballantine LLP and a core member of its Washington, DC-based international trade practice group. He was an equity partner in the firm from 2000-2004.
As an Adjunct Professor at the Washington College of Law (American University), Mr. Magnus teaches a course entitled “Understanding the United States Trade Regime.”
Mr. Magnus spent many years as an active volunteer and leader in the ABA Section of International Law, serving as a Council member, as Policy/Government Affairs Officer, as Chair of the International Trade Law Committee, and as ABA Delegate to numerous WTO Ministerial meetings. Other professional associations include the Global Business Dialogue, the Customs & International Trade Bar Association, the American Society of International Law; the International Chamber of Commerce, and the Washington International Trade Association. He speaks and publishes regularly on international economic issues.
Mr. Magnus is also on the “roster” of trade remedy experts established under Chapter 19 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (now Chapter 10 of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement), eligible for service on binational panels convened to review antidumping and countervailing duty determinations issued by Canada, Mexico and the United States, and has served three times as a panelist.
Mr. Magnus is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the D.C. Circuit, and the U.S. Court of International Trade, as well as in the District of Columbia, and the state of California. He holds a JD from the University of Chicago Law School (1990) and an AB, International Relations from Stanford University (1986).
