What marathon runners can teach us about trade deals

We can learn a lot about trade agreements from long-distance running. The 121st running of the Boston Marathon on April 17 reminds us that trade negotiations are often similar to marathons. 

Preparation is essential

First, trade negotiations take a long time if done correctly. Consultations with Congress and stakeholders, the negotiations themselves, the process to get agreements approved and the actual implementation process can take years from start to finish. Why so? Trade agreements are exceedingly complicated endeavors.

While they used to focus on relatively straightforward topics, such as cutting tariffs on agricultural or manufactured goods, trade deals now include a whole range of rules and disciplines. They cover many parts of the economy, such as services, labor, the environment, state-owned enterprises and e-commerce.

{mosads}This means more stakeholders are involved and more issues are in play. With so many moving pieces, the final deal only comes together because of proper preparation and focused execution. 

Marathons are similarly lengthy affairs. More than just a road race, a marathon involves months of preparation. Successful marathoners complete complicated training schedules, follow strict diet and nutritional guidelines and buy proper running shoes, clothes and other gear.

If any of these steps are missed, or if shortcuts are taken, the marathon itself can be a disaster. But taking these steps alone is no guarantee of success. Many factors have to go right on race day itself — health, weather, crowd support and so forth — or else the runner may hit the wall well before the finish line.

The main event is no cakewalk

Second, trade talks are grueling. Negotiators travel extensively, work long hours, master complicated issues and tenaciously represent their interests to succeed. We often hear of negotiators disappearing into “marathon” negotiating sessions — so named because they take a long time and because of the necessity of participant engagement until the bitter end to ensure they get the right deal.

The payoff for negotiators who are well-prepared is market access, trade-based jobs and wider consumer benefits. 

Marathons are taxing too, and they are equally rewarding. Legend has it that the first marathoner — Pheidippides — collapsed and died after making his historic run more than 2500 years ago. Nowadays, such tragedies are rare, but the pain that is felt by those who have completed 26.2 miles is very real, even for those who have properly trained.

But with that pain comes a reward that goes beyond the finisher t-shirt or medal. Marathon finishers — more than half a million in 2016 — enjoy a sense of accomplishment and health benefits for having completed such an arduous, athletic task. 

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

For sure, the smallest trade agreements do provide benefits because they eliminate barriers that hinder job creation or impose costs on consumers. But as trade agreements get larger, and include more countries, the benefits they confer grow exponentially.

Think of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that is so often in the news lately. It currently encompasses the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Such a trilateral approach is much stronger than if the U.S. had separate bilateral deals with Mexico and Canada, since we can now treat the combined three countries as a single market.

We can also harness our supply chains around the power of all three countries to make them regionally more efficient and globally more competitive. For trade deals, the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

So too with marathons. Broken down, a marathon is mathematically little more than 26 one-mile races. But anybody who has finished a marathon would scoff at this notion. Some argue that a marathon is really two races — a 20 miler, followed by a 10K.

That’s more accurate, but even that description does a disservice. What makes the marathon so special and so popular is that it is presented as a single undertaking that seems impossible, but, when achieved, it’s a memory that lasts a lifetime. 

The future of trade agreements is being debated in Washington, and indeed, around the world. As this discussion continues, let’s remember one last take away from Monday’s Boston Marathon. More than 30,000 runners will start in Hopkinton, race through Framingham, Natick and Wellesley, climb up Heartbreak Hill in Newton and finish in downtown Boston.

As they set out to cover those 26.2 miles, they will put everything on the course and make sure they leave nothing at the starting line. We should design our trade policy, and equip our trade negotiators, to do no less.

Steve Lamar is the executive vice president of the American Apparel & Footwear Association, the national trade association representing apparel, footwear and other sewn products companies, and their suppliers, which compete in the global market.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.