how to write an opening speech in model un

Dos and Don’ts of a Model UN Opening Speech

Written by Michael Dianetti

Mun articles | strategy, april 17, 2018, action | comprehensive | filler words | hook | multifaceted | opening speech | point | speaking | speeches | three-pronged.

Roll Call has been taken, decorum set, placards distributed, seats taken, debate open – it’s time for your first speech. The opening speech is often regarded as one of the most important parts of a Model United Conference. If it’s good it sets you apart. If it’s bad it seals your fate before the first unmod even begins. In some cases this assumption can be correct; however, it is important to remember that the opening speech is a maximum one minute of the conference that will be buried by two dozen hours more of committee. Nevertheless, an opening speech can be a powerful tool for an aspiring delegate to immediately set themselves apart and take control of committee. Below are our tips on how to deliver that perfect opening speech and start on the path to the gavel.

Break the Cadence

At the beginning of your MUN career, you may have been told to begin your opening speech or every speech, with the phrase  “Fellow Delegates, Honorable Chair…..” If you’ve been doing this, I’m here to tell you that it’s wrong. Please stop. Whether your committee has forty people or four-hundred, a boring introduction is the easiest way to put your ”fellow delegates” to sleep and erase yourself from the memory of your “honorable chair.” Opening speeches are all about breaking the mold and standing out. Don’t be the person that gives the same rise and fall speech that follows the same structure, and uses the same words.

Catch Everyone’s Attention

You might be wondering, “If I don’t start my speech with ‘fellow delegates, Honorable chair’ how do I start my speech?’ Easy answer. There is a multitude of ways to open your speech memorable. Many delegates go with a statistic, others use quotes, but the best opening speeches do something a little different. In a huge General Assembly, the same amount of people are going to use quotes and statistics as those who say “Fellow Delegates, Honorable Chair.” Before long every “hook” is lost among the excess of numbers and references to famous humanitarians and leaders. To be different, you have to be a little theatrical, a little sarcastic, and extremely bold. My personal favorite opener involves clapping my hands for ten seconds before explaining what my clapping represents. For example, I might clap and then say “Every time I clap my hands a Syrian refugee is denied refuge because of the isolationist policy of many members of the international community.” A delegate I know begins every opening speech by asking her committee to look at their watches and cleverly telling them that “It’s time for a change.” While these methods may seem a little excessive and silly, they are exactly what is needed to catch the attention of any delegates who have zoned out to the monotony of opening speeches and keep them engaged for the rest of your speech.

Avoid Filler Words and Jargon

“Comprehensive” “Multifaceted” “Three-Pronged” “Quasi” ”Collaborative” You may recognize these as some of the most common Model UN “filler” words that almost every delegate has used at some time in their MUN career. I can’t recount how many times I have heard a delegate give a minute-long speech that effectively accomplishes nothing because all they said was a mixed-up jumble of these words. The use of filler words is the easiest way to disengage from your audience and bury your speech among the hundreds of others that will be given during the conference. The goal of any speech is to set yourself apart from the rest of committee, prove that you are a better orator, and dispense your ideas in a clear and unique manner.

Speak Loud, Clear, and Slow

When you’re giving your opening speech it’s easy to become overwhelmed with nerves and anxiety. If you forget everything else remember that when giving your speech speak loud, clear, and slow. You want everyone in the room to be able to hear and understand what you are saying. You could have the most eloquent beautiful speech but if you botch the delivery it will mean nothing. Conversely, you can have a sub-par speech that becomes invaluable if you deliver it correctly.

Don’t Read

More than eighty percent of your committee will be reading carefully written opening speeches from a piece of paper. This can be intimidating, they know exactly what they are going to say, they have pre-prepared analogies and similes, and if you don’t have the same it may feel as if you are at a disadvantage. You aren’t. On a broad scale, these pre-prepared, written down speeches will all be grouped together in the minds of your committee members, while, if you give a more impromptu speech that addresses committee in a more personal and tangible manner you will stand out among the other delegates.

Even experienced delegates often forget the last, and most important, part of an opening speech – the ending.  A speech that brings attention to a problem or employs attention-grabbing techniques will always fall short if they don’t have an ending that rounds everything out. In the last line, call committee to do something, make a bold statement, share your plan. The last line is going to be what’s left in the ends of your “Fellow Delegates and Honorable Chair” long after your speech.

Up Your MUN Game this Summer The Ad Hoc Academy at Johns Hopkins University will give students plenty of opportunities to practice their speaking skills while taking advantage of professional coaching and guidance. Compete in six simulations in six days for over $6,000 in prizes. Apply today!  

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3.2 Making Speeches

Back to Handbook Contents page.

Back to Unit 3: Foundational Skills.

Speeches are an integral part of your performance and experience at a Model United Nations conference. They express your policy and introduce your presence to the body. This article explains why we give speeches in Model UN, how to prepare a Model UN speech and how to use diplomatic language.

For a funny look at how to prepare, read our BuzzFeed list here .

a. What is a Speech in Model United Nations?

As discussed in the section on Rules of Procedure , the discussion of your committee topic happens in two ways, formal debate and caucusing. Formal debate is conducted according to clear rules that govern who is able to speak and when. The chair of the committee will ask which countries would like to speak and add them to a “speakers list”, which is usually prominently displayed on a blackboard, flipchart or projector. The chair will invite a representative the country at the top of the list to come to the front of the room, or to a microphone, and deliver a speech outlining their policy on the committee topic. The speech is time-limited – depending on the size of your committee, speeches may be 30 to 90 seconds long. The chair of your committee will probably have a gavel, that s/he will tap when you have 10 or 15 seconds left and bang when your time is up. You must stop speaking once your allotted time has elapsed.

b. Purpose of Speeches

The main purpose of a speech in a Model UN committee is to introduce and talk about your policy ( using your 3PP ), signaling to other delegations where you stand on the committee topic. In a large committee, you may only get one chance to speak before the entire group, so it is important that your speech delivers a concise, compelling and memorable case for your country’s position. In smaller committees you may get more than one chance to speak, which allows you to comment on the progress of the discussion, the ideas that your country agrees with and the direction you think the committee should go. Making multiple good speeches establishes you as a significant player within the committee, so make sure to raise your placard whenever your chair asks if their is anyone who wishes to be added to the speakers list. When you are finished speaking, immediately send a note up the chair asking to be added to the speakers list again. Within reason, you benefit from being in front of the entire committee as much as possible.

Please note that the speech should try to move the discussion forward in a productive manner. Therefore, try to be as clear as possible about where your country would like the discussion to move, while also being diplomatic. Your speech is not an opportunity to try out your comedic material, start a fight or call out another state. At all times, you must conduct yourself with diplomatic decorum .

c. How to Write Your Speech

Students often feel unsure about how to write their speeches. The good news is that by following a structure carefully, and drawing on your position paper , you can write a compelling speech without much difficulty. A good speech — in its most basic form — grabs the audience’s attention, delivers your main point or “ask” and conveys why this is important. This can be represented as a simple “beginning, middle and end” structure:

Beginning of Your Speech

• Grab the audience’s attention, perhaps with a quote from your Head of State or a surprising statistic that dramatizes the main problem or question your committee is considering (perhaps drawn from your position paper ).
• Explain in a sentence how this quote or statistic relates to the global community’s concern for your committee topic.

Middle of Your Speech

• In one or two sentences, provide context and background (using statistics and other evidence) on the problem, showing how responses so far have not adequately dealt with it and why the committee needs to act.
• Introduce your country’s policy recommendations, using a 3PP . This is the most important piece of your speech.

End of Your Speech

• Reinforce why the urgency and importance of the problem
• Briefly restate your policy and hope for a common solution
• Close with a compelling quote from your country’s president or foreign minister (or a UN official) relating to the topic

Note that you can shorten or lengthen your speech around this structure depending on the time available for speeches in your committee. However, you should never cut the policy recommendation (3PP) , since this is the primary purpose of your speech — you want other states to know where your delegation stands and what you are calling on the committee to do.

You should spend some time before the conference preparing your first speech, but once the committee begins you will probably need to writing speeches “on the fly.” These more improvised speeches should address the specific issues that are emerging out of the committees discussions. Again, they should focus on your state’s policy positions on the topics of discussion. To prepare these more extemporaneous speeches rely on the above structure and information from your position paper research.

One of the Pace University New York City head delegates has prepared a useful “cheat sheet” to print out and take to your committee session to help you write speeches quickly. Click here to download it.

d. How to Practice Your Speech

Almost everyone has nerves when it comes to public speaking, but you can manage these by preparing well, memorizing the information in your position paper (perhaps use flash cards) and practicing. Run through your first speech with a timer, perhaps in front of your delegation partner or a head delegate . Ask them to give you gentle and constructive feedback. Practice giving extemporaneous speeches by having your delegation partner come up with a topic and speaking about it for a minute. Support each other and share useful quotes, information and statistics within the class, particularly among those who will be representing the same country as you. Remember that the head delegates , senior delegates and the faculty advisor are also available to meet with you and help if you feel unsure or uncomfortable with public speaking.

e. How to Present Your Speech

The following is a list of things to keep in mind when presenting your speech:

Posture and Gestures

• Stand confidently
• Move around only for dramatic effect
• Feel free to make hand gestures, but avoid pointing with or wagging your finger
• Avoid slouching or fidgeting. If fidgeting helps to manage your anxiety, perhaps hold a pencil behind your back, or move your toes inside your shoes, to keep it out of sight.
• Don’t touch or flip your hair
• Don’t cover your mouth with your hands

Eye Contact

• When you begin, make eye contact with your chair and the committee
• Look up from your notes, don’t simply read them
• If necessary, find a spot to look at in the back of the room

Facial Expressions

• If you look bored, people will tune you out
• You should take your topic seriously and show that through your demeanor and expressions

Speech Aids

• Use note cards if needed, but avoid a piece of paper, which might rattle if your hands are shaking
• Use your notes to enhance your speech, not as a crutch
• Do not read your notes word for word
• Speak clearly, as your audience needs to understand what you are saying
• Maintain diplomatic decorum
• Practice difficult words (Country names, president names, program titles, words with many syllables)
• Speak slowly; don’t try to cram a large amount of information into one speech, as you need to get your point across in 30-90 seconds.
• Practice your volume. Everyone needs to hear you, but don’t yell. You can vary your volume for dramatic effect
• Use variety, pitch, and rate wisely! Don’t start too fast or speed up at the end. When saying a quote or your 3PP, SLOW DOWN!
• Don’t be intimidated by the ten-second tap by the chair
• Be clear on what you are trying to communicate.
• Your goal is to PERSUADE, not to just state your policy or 3PP
• Think carefully about who you are speaking to — who do you need to persuade? You usually don’t need to persuade everyone — focus on those who are undecided, the “maybe” votes
• Think about why your speech matters — this is your moment to speak, don’t waste it. How will the committee be affected by your speech? You will hear hundreds of speeches, make yours stand out.
• Have confidence in your topic and policy
• Make sure you always have sources to back up your information
• Leaving an impression says you are trustworthy, unique, competent and open to negotiation.

Katie James, Elena Marmo, Michael Zona and Matthew Bolton for Pace University, 2013. Version 3.0 BETA. For information, permissions or corrections, contact Dr. Matthew Bolton, [email protected]

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Public Speaking Tips

Writing and delivering speeches is an important aspect of the MUN simulation. Speeches help delegates convey the positions of their Member States, help build consensus and start formulating resolutions. Usually, the committee sets the speaking time, as the delegates make a motion to set the duration and if the motion has been seconded, the body then votes upon the suggestion.

Although speechmaking is very important to the MUN simulation, many delegates’ biggest fear is public speaking. It is essential that delegates come to the conference well prepared: meaning that they have completed prior research, know their country’s position, and even have objectives for a resolution.

Delegates should observe ‘decorum’ (i.e., be polite) when speaking. The opening of a speech should begin with: “Thank you- Honorable-Chair, Fellow delegates…”

An opening speech should include:

• Brief introduction of your country’s history of the topic
• Past actions taken by the U.N., Member States, NGOs, etc. to combat the problem
• The current situation of the topic
• Your country’s overall position on the topic/reason for position
• Possible ideas or goals for a resolution
• Whether there is room for negotiation on your position

As there are no set guidelines for how delegates should execute their speeches, delegates should decide how they feel most comfortable delivering their speeches. Some delegates utilize their position papers as their opening speeches, others just write out some key points, and many just speak without any aides. Since public speaking is a skill it is important to practice, practice, practice.

Remember the audience should always be considered when making a speech. Be aware of the audience and their diversity. The beginning of the speech must captivate the audience and motivate them to want to hear more. It must pertain to an audience’s interests.

Mr. Anthony Hogan, Model U.N. International, suggests the system of six “C’s” to improve your ability:

1. Confidence Confidence is portrayed by being as knowledgeable as possible on your subject and conveying this knowledge through the power of your voice and eyes. As a Model U.N. delegate, you are the authority and representative of your respective country. Research well and speak as if you know you are undoubtedly right. As the speaker, you must have confidence in yourself; otherwise, the audience will have little confidence in you.

2. Clear A speaker can do many things beforehand to assist them in speaking clearly. Write an outline of the topics that are going to be said, and follow it when speaking. Always speak slowly. This will allow the audience to hear everything that is said. Know your terminology well beforehand to avoid fumbling with words. Try to enunciate words properly.

3. Concise A good public speaker presents his/her points in a clean and clear-cut fashion. Unnecessary words and information should not be used to fill in the speech. The speech should be brief and to the point—say what you have to say. Do not ramble on about the topic in order to appear knowledgeable.

4. Constructive An effective public speech needs to be constructed properly. Start with a solid foundation that brings together all of your ideas, present your points, and then connect them by reviewing what was said. There should be an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. It is a known fact that three is a magic number. Say it once, say it and review it, then say it again. This method will help the audience to remember what was said.

5. “Con Passion” It is always important to speak from the heart—with passion—hence the Spanish term “con passion”. Always maintain eye contact with the audience. In doing so the audience will feel connected to you and your speech. This is what you want. You want to grab and hold the audience’s attention.

6. Critique It is better to critique than to criticize. Critiquing is constructive and allows for people to grow and improve. Criticizing brings peoples’ motivation and confidence down. A critique should be accepted positively since it is a tool that is used to strengthen one’s public speaking.

Some additional tips for effective public speaking

• ELIMINATE UNNECESSARY SPEECH FILLERS from your communication. Fillers are words and phrases such as “umm,” “well,” “it is sort-a like,” “it’s kinda like.” These take away from the message you want to convey. Some of the words and phrases to eliminate include: “you know,” “I think,” “I’m sorry,” “just,” “but,” “should,” “like,” “um,” and, “a,” etc.
• USE THE POWERFUL PAUSE. Do not be afraid to have a moment of silence between sentences. A pause, after thought, and prefacing a response to a question holds the attention of the listener.
• BREATHE from the diaphragm. Breathe deeply and often.
• PACE YOURSELF. Do not talk too fast or too slow.
• PHYSICALLY POSITION YOURSELF POWERFULLY. Be aware of your posture when you speak. Slouching, tilting your head, and crossing your arms or legs diminishes the message. Stand up straight, shoulders down, feet firmly planted, and knees unlocked.
• PROJECT YOUR PRESENCE. Your voice is the herald that carries your message. Speak from your diaphragm not your throat. Keep the sound in the low- to medium-range. This projects authority. Speak loudly enough to be easily heard. Focus on speaking with enthusiasm, and energy and create color with your voice.
• GESTURES. Do not be a statue. Consider occasionally exaggerating a gesture. Speaking from a platform is different than holding a one on one conversation. Use your whole body when you speak.
• CONNECT WITH YOUR AUDIENCE. Use a lot of eye contact. Speak directly to individual members of the audience. Do not take your eyes off your audience or focus on a point over their heads.
• COMMUNICATE CONFIDENCE. Make a conscious effort to project yourself confidently. This is as important as the message.

[Source: MKCMUN]

West London Model UN

Background guides and preparation.

Welcome to WLMUN delegate resources page! We are looking forward to hosting you at our conference in February! In order to be a successful delegate, you are going to want to familiarise yourself with the global classrooms debate style and the topic you will be debating.  Follow the steps below to make sure that you are well prepared for success at the Conference in February!

Step 1 : Learn about Model UN.

What is MUN? Watch this video

See this website for top tips to get you started

Step 2 : Make sure to read the background guide for your topic

2024 Background Guides to be uploaded in mid-October.

Background Guide 1: Reproductive and Maternal Health

Background Guide 2: Technology, Democracy and Surveillance

Background Guide 3: Accelerating the Drive Towards Clean Automobile Energy

Background Guide 4: Negatively Charged: The Ethical and Environmental Implications of Electric Devices

Background Guide 5: Artificial Intelligence in Warfare and Autonomous Weaponry

Step 3: Learn about your committee

Ask your teacher which UN Committee you are in, and learn a little about the kind of things that committee discusses.

Do a Google search with the Committee’s name. You can also Google the Committee along with your topic to see what action your committee has taken on this topic in the past

Step 4: Research on the country you’ve been assigned so that you can represent it well in the conference.  

In MUN you are not arguing your personal opinions but the opinions of the country you are representing. To learn more about your country visit the CIA Factbook . or the BBC Country profiles

Try to keep up on your country by keeping up on cultural events and reading the news

Use this general research template to guide you

Step 5:  RESEARCH your country's position on your topic

Research Template 1: Reproductive and Maternal Health

Research Template 2: Technology, Democracy and Surveillance

Research Template 3: Accelerating the Drive Towards Clean Automobile Energy

Research Template 4: Negatively Charged: The Ethical and Environmental Implications of Electric Devices

Research Template 5: Artificial Intelligence in Warfare and Autonomous Weaponry

Step 6: Write a position paper!

This is what you have been doing all this research for!.  You will use to introduce yourself as a delegate to your committee as well as act as a template for the arguments you will make in committee.

If you want to learn more about writing a position paper, you can watch this

Position Paper Template 1: Reproductive and Maternal Health

Position Paper Template 2: Technology, Democracy and Surveillance

Position Paper Template 3: Accelerating the Drive Towards Clean Automobile Energy

Position Paper Template 4: Negatively Charged: The Ethical and Environmental Implications of Electric Devices

Position Paper Template 5: Artificial Intelligence in Warfare and Autonomous Weaponry

Step 7:  Send your position paper into us by Friday, Feb 2, 2024

When your position paper is done, submit it as a pdf to the form linked here

If you have any questions, email [email protected] .

Step 8:  Turn your position paper into a short speech:

You should come to MUN prepared with a one minute speech that communicates the most important points that you have made in your position paper. Be snappy and sharp and focussed. At the end of the speech you can yield time to questions or yield to the chair and sit down.

Click here for some pointers on making a Good Speech:

Some Videos and Other Guides to Help You On the Conference Day

If you want to get a step up, we have additional videos and resources to help learn more about what will happen at the conference itself.  But don’t stress out about this -- you will pick most of this up as you go along on the day. 

Parliamentary Language: During the Conference you will use parliamentary language to make points and motions that move the day along. See a list of the key terms you will use

          You don’t need to study this in advance...you will learn it on the day.

Opening Speeches.

         The conference will start with the opening of the speakers list and an opportunity for you to make an opening speech.          (see the video in Step 8 above)

Moderated and Unmoderated Caucuses: Following opening speeches, you will move into moderated caucus. It is a bit like a class discussion when you can raise your placard, get called on, quickly make key points, and ask other delegates questions. Be prepared before you come, with the key points from your position paper you want to share. Watch this video to see what a moderated caucus looks like.

How to Write A Resolution: The goal of the committee is to write and pass a resolution. As delegates you will have time during the day to break into groups and work on your resolution together. This video gives an excellent overview of what is involved.

         Also see instructions here

         And the sample resolution

         And this list of commonly used terms for introducing pre-ambulatory and operative clauses

Good luck preparing for the conference!

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How to improve your model un speech structure.

Giving a Model UN speech with a structure that conveys your thoughts without rambling on can be tough. Use our Hook, Point, Action framework to create the perfect speech structure every time!

• Hook : Draw in your audience with a though-provoking question, quote, story, or statistic.
• Point : Give your main point of the speech – why are you here, and what are your ideas? Add sub-points if you have time.
• Action : Provide a call-to-action for your audience to perform. It could be a concrete action or something more abstract.

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How to Write a MUN Position Paper

A MUN Position Paper, also known as Policy Paper, is a strategic document that gives an overview of a delegates country position.

A good MUN Position Paper has three parts:

1) Country’s Position on the Topic 2) Country’s Relation to the Topic 3) Proposals of Policies to Pass in a Resolution

The following guide will show you how to write an excellent Position Paper, make the right impression to your chair and fellow delegates while achieving your overt, and covert, goals.

Table of Contents:

What is a Position Paper?

• The Sections of a Position Paper
• The PREP Formula

Types of Position Papers

The purpose of a position paper.

A Position Paper/Policy Paper, is a document, normally one page, which presents your country’s stance on the issue/topic your committee will be discussing. A solid position paper has three parts 1) Country’s position, 2) Country’s relation 3) Country’s Proposal

Great Position Papers require research and strategic analysis to effectively convey your countries position. Most MUN conferences require Policy Papers for a delegate to be eligible to win an award. Having an outstanding Position Paper could be the tiebreaker to win an award.

Why is the Position Paper important?

A MUN Position Paper is important for a wide variety of reasons beyond ensuring that delegates do a basic level of research before the conference. Understanding why a Position Paper is important lays the foundation to help you sort your thoughts as well as delivering your desired message to the chair.

The chairs oversee the committee from start to finish and as a delegate, you will want to show consistency with the principles and values present in your Position Paper.

Goals of a Position Paper

1. Show your country’s unique understanding of the issue being discussed . 2. Show your country’s previous relationship with the topic (preferably with relevant examples). 3. Show policies and ideas that your country would like to see in the resolution .

As most position papers are limited to one page, a minimum of one paragraph should be devoted to each of the aforementioned goals, and there should be clear transitions from paragraph to paragraph. The following position paper outline is universal, with options to expand in specific sections if you see it is needed.

The Sections of a Good Position Paper

A position paper is the result of proper preparation and research for your Model UN conference . Once you finish researching, follow the position paper guidelines (the conference should provide you with these). With the formatting instructions in mind, follow the instructions below to produce a high-quality position paper.

Model UN Position Paper Structure

1) How you / your country sees the situation/problem in general

2) Your country’s relation to the topic

3) What you want to pass in your MUN resolution

1) Your Position on the Topic Being Discussed

To answer the question “how to start a Position Paper’, keep in mind that you are not only sharing your position, but also introducing the reader to see the topic being discussed from your eyes.

To establish your position, start with a brief history of the situation / problem the committee will be discussing (How you see the situation / your position on the topic). Define what you see as the challenge to the global community (or at least what some of them face). Keep in mind that your goal is to meet this challenge by the end of the paper.

Frame the issue to be discussed as something that does not only pertain to your country but, ideally, also the other countries you would want to support your policy.

It helps to keep in mind that you will not get support for your clauses, or pass a resolution, alone. It is only if other countries see the topic the same way you do, that they will want to join you to implement your solution.

Example of Position Country: Angola Committee: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Topic : Improving Access to Clean Water

The Republic of Angola believes consistent access to clean water is a basic human right. Some countries have an abundance of water, such as: Canada, Scotland and Switzerland. Others have next to no water, such as: Yemen, Libya and Djibouti, or low rainfall like Namibia and Sudan which creates water scarcity and desertification. The solution to all of these problems is the weather control that comes from cloud-seeding, with richer countries already reaping the benefits. The National Center of Meteorology and Seismology (NCMS) witnessed an increase in rainfall of 10%–15% in polluted air and 30%–35% in clean air. China uses cloud seeding over several increasingly arid regions including Beijing, the capital. In 2017, the United Arab Emirates launched 235 cloud-seeding operations by five cloud-seeding planes based in Al Ain. The use and success proves the technology works, but it is only accessible to those who can afford setting up the mechanisms to cloud seed, or pay for the chemicals from companies like Bayer and DowDuPont Inc, who control the patents and sales rights.

2) Your Country’s Relation To The Topic

presentation of the policies your country has used to deal with the issue in the past. You should also describe the successes or failures of those policies (Your country’s previous relation to the topic and the precedents it set).

Note: This is also the place to write previous actions your committee has with the topic ONLY IF it is relevant to how your country introduces itself. Otherwise, you are repeating factual information that is not related to you introducing your position. Writing facts that do not forward your case is a trap many fall into. In the cases where your country has a strong link to the issue, the examples in the 2nd paragraph should be about your country’s connection to the specific issue.

If your country has no direct relation, see if similar countries to yours, or countries with similar positions, have a relation to the topic. You can also conduct research to find out if your country has a relation to a similar topic, from where you can draw inspiration and a direction to justify your policies. (More on this in our article about ‘ How to effectively represent your country ’)

Example of Relation Country: Angola Committee: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Topic : Improving Access to Clean Water

Angola’s history is scarred with conflicts arising from the abuse and mismanagement of natural resources, such as iron ore, petroleum, uranium, and diamonds. Angola is oil-rich while our people are dirt-poor. We stand at 149 out of 186 on the 2016 Human Development Index poverty scale. In rural areas, which contain 11.4 million people (38.5% of our total population), only 6% of households having access to electricity and 38% do not have access to safe water sources. Approximately 15 out of every 100 children do not survive beyond the age of five, leaving us with a child mortality rate is around 17%. These challenges are especially difficult for our president Joao Lourenco, who entered the office in September 2017. President Lourenco biggest challenge is reforming 38 years of cronyism and corruption under former President José Eduardo dos Santos. During his 38 years in power, infrastructure has not been developed while tens of billions of petrodollars disappeared. The 2014 oil slump made our situation worse reaffirming that we are unable to pull ourselves up on our own. Additionally, we do not get enough rain. We only get 32 days of rain with more than 0.1mm of rainfall meaning only 2.7 days of quality rain, sleet, and snow per month. Not enough to maintain adequate crop yields.

3) Extra Supporting Material

be hard data needed to support paragraph 2 or justify paragraph 3; this 4th paragraph still comes before the final section where you describe your desired policies.

what was originally read in the committee study guide.

Example of Extra Country: Angola Committee: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Topic : Improving Access to Clean Water

The global system that depends on technologies provided by companies like Corteva is strongly entrenched in the Sub Saharan agriculture sector, as well as all over the world. The four biggest companies, Bayer-Monsanto, ChemChina, Corteva and Syngenta have 59 percent of the world’s patented seeds, 64 percent of all pesticides and held near-monopolies over other agrichemicals. The use of these crops and chemicals has become fundamental to grow corn in Tanzania, potatoes in Kenya and other crops in sub-Saharan Africa throughout their diverse range of crops and terrains. This position of power persists because the sub-Saharan farmers are similar in their lack of access to best practices, techniques, technologies, finances and markets. This lack of skills is combined with limited resources results in the agriculture sector that is as under-development in agriculture as it is dependent on companies like ChemChina.

4)Proposal – What You Want to Pass in a Resolution

Give an outline of possible / likely solutions that your country proposes and would advocate to see implemented during the Model UN simulation. Do this within the limits of what your particular committee can do (What you would want to pass a resolution about). If you want to do additional actions beyond the mandate of your committee, you can outsource them to other committees. If this is an integral part of your strategy they should also go here. In the Proposal section, you can either commit to one strong Call to Action, a few different policies or two extreme red lines, which you say you intend to work between. Remember, while you do not need to fully commit yourself to what you write in your Position Papers, it is important that you show the margins within which you will be operating at the conference. Doing this shows there is thought behind your actions and gives you more credit with the chairs for diplomatic progress. It is thus strongly advisable that you not write something that you will directly contradict through your actions in committee sessions.

What is a Policy? A policy is a course of action proposed, or adopted, by a government, party, business, or individual. Your policies are a Call to Action telling the UN officials, who get the resolution, what to do.

You want your MUN policy to be clear, concise, and SMART .

The SMART MUN Policy

SMART is an acronym to describe the criteria needed to set policy goals. S pecific – Target a specific area for improvement in your policy.

M easurable – Suggest an indicator of progress once the policy is in place.

A ctionable – Specify what action this policy will do.

R ealistic – Given available resources and committee mandate, ensure your proposed policy can realistically be attained.

Timely – Specify when the result(s) from your proposed policy can be achieved, or when to revisit.

Example of Proposal Country: Angola Committee: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Topic : Improving Access to Clean Water

Angola advocates for a UN-sanctioned policy that gives permission to dry developing countries to make generic replicas of their patented chemicals at a fraction of the cost to achieve water independence. An example of these technologies belongs to German rainfall enhancement leader WeatherTec Services GmbH. WeatherTecs cutting edge technologies to improve water access are cheaper than many of their competitors but the operating costs start at 11 – 15 million Euros a year. Angola does not believe the United Nations should subsidize the cost of the chemicals, as the subsidy is a temporary solution and it would take funds from other important programs while leaving the corporations with the same level of control. Today, aside from South Africa, none of us can afford cloud seeding. We can cloud seed on our own if freed from the shackles of patent laws that benefit the rich. Dupot made net sales of $62.5B in 2017, by charging prices which the poorer dry countries could never afford. The UN should allow the relevant member states to locally produce WeatherTecs technologies so we can join the ranks of self-sufficient nations who can provide for themselves the basic water needs to survive.

The PReP Formula for Successful Position Papers

PReP stands for Position, Relation, extra & Proposal , which are the essential parts of every position paper . PReP will help you remember the formula.

Position – Your view / interpretation of the issue being discussed. (Paragraph 1)

Relation – Your connection to the topic being discussed. (Paragraph 2)

extra – The optional 4th paragraph which can contain extra information your feel is critical to your case, but doesn’t naturally fit into one of the other three paragraphs. This paragraph still comes before the one containing your policies.

Proposal – The practical policies you would want to see in the resolution. (Paragraph 3)

The PReP Strategy

With the Proposal ( paragraph 3), you solve the issue shown in your Position (paragraph 1) with the tools and relevance you set up in your Relation (paragraph 2). (The examples used in paragraph 2 should, preferably, also show the policy margins of your country).

The policy outlined in the final section of the Position Paper should show ideas that address the issues outlined in your position associated with the committee topic (as should have been specified in the first paragraph). This position should be justified by the country’s relation (or guesstimate relation) to the topic (the second paragraph). These should be used to justify the policy proposals you outline in the third paragraph. Each of these paragraphs should try to have as much unique information as possible that can’t be found in the committee study guide (because everyone in the committee should theoretically know that information). Obviously, your paper should have some connection to the main issues of the topic, but if you feel the paper should go in a different direction, that is completely your right.

Topic: Finding the cure for the Zika virus

Country: Greece

While this topic is one that is important, the delegate of Greece can decide that he doesn’t want his country to fund viruses they don’t have and only exists half a world away. In such a case, we would see:

Position (First paragraph) : How the global community spends collective money on local issues.

Relation (Second paragraph): How Greece doesn’t have the money to spend and how it has local diseases and problems at home.

Extra (Fourth Optional Paragraph): Optional paragraph could include data on regional diseases that broke out in neighboring countries and remain a viable threat for Greece.

Proposal (Third paragraph): Passing laws that would have localized diseases with body counts that don’t cross the tens of thousands, to be funded by local unions. There can also be a second idea that the World Health Organization divert extra funds instead of countries collectively forking out money.

There is no set amount of space each section needs to have. Some Position papers need a longer first section while others need double the space for the policy. What is certain is that no paper can miss any of the sections (except the extra part) and each one should be developed to at least 25% of the paper.

Practicum: The four-step plan to implement PReP

Writing a Position Paper should come after you finish your MUN research . Once you have completed that (and especially if you haven’t), follow this three-step plan and don’t over complicate things.

– Position Papers chairs read – Position Papers delegates read – Position Papers everyone will read – Position Papers no one will read

“Everyone has a story to tell or a product to sell. Know your audience before you open your mouth.” – April Sims

While not all Model United Nations conferences require Position Papers, many of them do. Whether it be your Chairs, other delegates, a mix or none of the above, knowing who will be your audience will help you craft the right paper and achieve your desired goal.

Position Papers Only The Chair Will Read

When the chair is required to send feedback, this usually means they will have read your Position Paper. This is an excellent opportunity to go all out, regarding the reasons for why your country has the position that it is taking and why you chose the policies that you did. (See our article on ‘Properly Represent Your Country?’) This is also the place to describe your Call to Action / the policies you want to implement in detail. The reason for such open and clear (but not too clear) writing is because no one but the Chair will read it, meaning you don’t need as much nuance as you would in a public Position Paper or opening speech. This is the place to give your ideas in a clear, unfiltered manner so that the Chair can understand it later when you give a more layered speech during the formal sessions.

‘For Chair eyes only’ Position Papers are also an excellent opportunity to bring facts and ideas that you want known to the chair, but don’t have time to fit into your first speech or two. While not bluntly giving away your country’s real motivation, you have a lot more liberty to flag things you’re afraid might be missed once the committee session starts.

Position Papers Only Delegates will Read (but not Chairs)

These are Position Papers where all the delegates are able to read each other’s work, research and position on the topic at hand. An example of where this can happen, is a large conference (e.g. 200 delegates), where the Position Paper deadline is the day before the conference.

For these papers, you still want to use the Position Paper platform to show why the discussion should focus on where you want it to go. For this reason, the Position Paper should be written more to frame the issue than give concrete detailed policies. Delegates who did not research to the same extent, or have no clear position, can be introduced to your interpretation of the topic. Some may completely adopt it, or at least be familiar with it when they hear it in a speech. (See our article on ‘ Writing the Killer Speech ’)

Position Papers Everyone Will Read (Chairs and Delegates)

The Chair + Delegate Position Papers are the most complex to write. In these cases, the ideal situation is for the chair to see what you would want them to see, as if it was written just for them, while at the same time, the other delegates would see a Position Paper customized for them. This is a hard balance to find, but if erring to one side, it is better to build a paper for the delegates and hope the chair has the experience to read between the lines.

One more variable to take into consideration is when Position Papers are written for a gigantic committee (100 or more delegates).

In gigantic rooms, the Position Paper should have at least the basics of the policy, because one might not speak in the first few hours and this might be the only way to get you onto the floor.

Position Papers No One Will Read

Yes, this actually exists in MUN. Some Position Papers will not be read by the Chairs  or anyone else at all. However, the conference requires submission to qualify for a diplomacy award. A few conferences will admit that no one will read the Position Papers, but most will not.

Here are a few things to look out for to know your Position Papers likely won’t be read:

-When Chairs are not required to send you feedback on the Position Paper

– The deadline is the day before the conference.

In these cases, the main benefit of writing a Position Paper is to organize your thoughts. However, in practice, a poor document can be just as easily submitted to qualify.

Pitfalls to Avoid

Potential issues you may run into:

• You may run into a situation where your country does not have a clear policy towards a topic, or they have recently changed policy. For example, with the election in the US and the change from one ideology to another, their rhetoric towards the Iran Nuclear issue changed almost overnight. It would be tempting to follow the words of the leaders in a case like this, but pay attention to actual actions. Nothing has changed.
• When faced with conflicting positions from your country, choose one and stick with it. Use the position that you can find the most research on.
• Sometimes you will be stuck with a topic or committee that your country has little to no interest in. This will cause a lack of information to work with. For example, if you are in UNESCO and the topic is oil drilling in Ecuador’s rainforest, you may find that Malawi has not put out any statement on the issue. Don’t despair.
• In a situation like this, when your country has no position on a topic, you have to get creative. Find similar issues that affect your country and extrapolate that to the current topic. For the Ecuador example, Malawi can use their position of environmental issues in their own country and throughout the continent as a guide as to how they would respond.
• If you find yourself on a topic with indigenous people’s rights, but your country does not have a strong position, find out if there are indigenous groups in that country. Do they treat them well or poorly? Both will give you a direction to take with your Position Paper.
• There shouldn’t be a single sentence that has no purpose.  Each fact or statement should support the identity you are constructing.
• If you feel a fact or statement that doesn’t seem to have a place, must be in the PP, think about why. If it is so vital that it fits into the first, second, or sometimes the  third paragraph. If it does not, perhaps it can be replaced with one which does.
• The information can be used later – this fact or statement can be important and be saved for a later speech. However, the position paper needs to be a self-supporting document and just because it is important doesn’t mean it has to go here.
• You want to end every Position Paper on a strong note, but you do not want to have a conclusion that is overwhelming or concrete. Remember, you will not have many pages, usually, one to get your country’s position across. The Chair is not judging your Position Paper on how well you close, they are judging it based on your understanding of the issues and the solutions you bring to the table.
• That being said, it helps to close the paper well. There is an old saying about writing an essay that can apply to a Position Paper as well:
• “Your introduction tells them they will be intrigued. The body is the meat of the argument. The conclusion reminds them that they were impressed.”
• How do we apply this to a Position Paper? In the beginning, you frame the problem, not wasting your time giving a detailed research paper. The bulk of the paper is letting the Chair know that you understand your country’s relationship to the topic and your proposed solutions. Your conclusion is going to close briefly with a strong, concluding remark. BRIEFLY is the key word here.

Position Paper Format

The format of each Positions Paper, or Position Paper template, varies from conference to conference. However, even if you have no format instructions you do not want to have a messy position paper.

An unorganized paper can:

• Make you look less serious (to chairs and delegates)
• Make your text harder to follow
• Give your reader less incentive to pay attention

Messy Position Paper – Example

You can see here how the bunched lines, uneven spacing, random bullet points, different sizes, confused margins and everything else makes the paper unappealing to the eye before we even start reading.

Organized Position Paper – Example

Here you can see the Position Paper is more organized and easier to read.

Sometimes, the conference will give you an unfilled Position Paper template, with the logo and blank headings for you to fill in. Other times, the conference will send you a Model UN Position Paper sample. Other conferences will send you specific, or loose, Position Paper instructions about how they want the paper formatted.

Each Position Paper should be measured by its content and its ability to inform and influence the respective Chairs and delegate. However, the Position Paper will not reach that point if it is not accepted. It is a pity when your work is not be read or forwarded on because you got the font wrong, exceeded the margins or sent the paper in late. For this reason, whether strict or lax, read and follow the Model UN Position Paper formatting instructions so the hard work you put into the document will achieve its strategic objective.

Examples of Position Paper Instructions

Position Paper Instructions Example #1:

Write the Position Paper for ExampleMUN 2026 using the standards below:

• Length must not exceed two pages.
• Margins must be 2.54 cm or 1 inch for the entire paper.
• Font must be Times New Roman, size 12.
• Justify the paragraphs. The left and right margins must both have straight edges.
• Country name / institution committee name must be clearly labeled on the top of the 1st page.
• Agenda topics must be clearly labeled as the title.
• National symbols, such as flags, logos, etc. are deemed inappropriate for ExampleMUN Position Papers.
• Send your document in PDF format.

Position Paper Instructions Example #2:

We ask delegates of ExampleMUN to each produce a position paper before the conference. It must outline their country’s position, main objectives and issues they are seeking to address during the conference. Your Chairs will return the Position Papers to you with feedback a fortnight before the conference. This will give you time to ascertain which countries would be considered natural allies for you and for you to read which issues the other delegates may deem important.

A Position Paper the length of one side of A4 should be sufficient to state your position.

Example of Formatted Position Paper

Angola feels that in this day and age, hunger should be a thing of the past. However, in 2018, over 795 million people do not have enough food to lead a healthy, active life. This does not include the half of the world’s population, more than 3 billion people, who live on less than $2.50 a day. For better or worse, the road to more accessible and cheaper food is strongly related to water supply. Some countries have an abundance of water, such as: Canada, Scotland and Switzerland. Others have next to no water, such as: Yemen, Libya and Djibouti, or low rainfall like Namibia and Sudan which creates water scarcity and desertification. The solution to all of these problems is the weather control that comes from cloud-seeding, with richer countries already reaping the benefits. The National Center of Meteorology and Seismology (NCMS) witnessed an increase in rainfall of 10–15% in polluted air and 30–35% in clean air. China uses cloud seeding over several increasingly arid regions including Beijing, the capital. In 2017, the United Arab Emirates launched 235 cloud-seeding operations by five cloud-seeding planes based in Al Ain. The use and success proves the technology works, but it is only accessible to those who can afford setting up the mechanisms to cloud seed, or pay for the chemicals from companies like Bayer, Dupont and Dow Chemical Company, who control the patents and sales rights.

How to Win a Best Position Paper Award

T he difference between a good and a great Position Paper

Good Chairs will give credit to delegates who properly predict the room and are able to guide their policies from the Position Paper to the final resolution. This is because it means that the delegates accurately predicted which direction the discussion would go in, or better still, were able to direct the room in that direction.

This does not mean that the best delegate must have an excellent Position Paper, or perfectly stick to it. Aside from the ‘Best Position Paper’ award, the actions that take place in the committee are almost completely what Chairs will consider for awards. However, it is not uncommon that a Position Paper is used as a tiebreaker between two extremely close delegates.

In all these cases, you need to have an opinion. To win the ‘Best Position Paper’ award, your Position Paper needs to be full of new solutions, it must follow proper format and it has to be concise and ‘ fluff-free ’. Neutrality on an issue, or saying your country has no opinion, is admitting that you will let other delegates take the lead on the issue. It is better to find a policy of a country similar to yours, or your own policy on a similar issue, than saying nothing. More on how to deal with this can be found in our ‘ Research ’ and ‘ How to Represent Your Country ’ articles.

Top Position Paper Strategies

• The Chair of your committee will be reading so many Position Papers about the same exact topic that they will be bored to death of seeing the same solutions over and over again. To stand out, come up with a viable, new strategy that other countries may not have thought of. We say viable because it cannot be so outlandish as to be impossible, but it should be something that makes the Chair stop and focus on your paper.
• You can get a little off-the-wall with solutions, as long as they have a basis in reality.
• Alexander Hamilton employed a similar strategy during the Constitutional Convention in the US. When debating an overhaul of the US government, there were two main plans (the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan). The New Jersey plan was closer to what was already in place, while the Virginia Plan was a change almost too much for people to handle (though most knew this was the only way to save the nation). In order to discredit the New Jersey Plan, Hamilton boldly proposed a plan so radical, that the Virginia Plan became moderate in comparison.
• Hamilton’s plan opened the discussion and changed the conversation. It caught the attention of everyone present and moved them towards a solution.
• You can do this with a position paper. Even if you do not ultimately get what you want, you have caught the Chair’s attention and have become a player in the game.

While this seems self-explanatory, you would be surprised how many people disregard the format rules given by the conference. Do not ignore this. As Chairs are reading the papers, they will come to expect certain formatting and anything not following the rules will stand out, and not in a good way. Do not get on the Chair’s bad side before the conference even begins. You can be sure that they will take points off for improper formatting and keep your name written down for conference time.

When you think about how to start a Position Paper, don’t go for an intense sound-bite. Flare is not good without substance. Try to be as clear as you comfortably can and reach your important points as quickly as possible.

What Chairs Look For

Similarly to how Position Paper format instructions are given to delegates, Chairs are also given instructions by the Model UN Conference Secretariat on how to evaluate Position Papers. Chairing, from when you write the study guide until the closure of debate, is a sacred responsibility.

Sometimes, the instructions given by the secretariat on how to evaluate Position Papers are clear and uniform. However, often, a Chair needs to fill in some gaps between the secretariat’s instructions and doing the job in real-time.  To better understand the considerations regarding Position Papers, read the following instructions, given by an Under-secretary General of Chairing to their staff.

 ————————————–

Dear Chairs,  

As of this weekend, all the registered delegates should receive their study guides. While a few delegates will still be getting allocations over the next week, most of them will have received guidelines for how and when to send Position Papers. The delegates are required to send the Position Papers to the committee email from the 20th – 26th of February. Any Position Paper received by the 26th before midnight should receive feedback from one of the Chairs. You are not obligated to give feedback to papers received from the 27th onwards. Hopefully, you should get most or all of the papers before the deadline. Papers received after the 28th are not eligible for the best position paper award, as you may not have time to check them. Position Papers that are received after March 1st, or not at all, will make the delegate ineligible for an award.

In the Position Papers, we want to see that delegates show they understand (a) the topic (b) their countries positions and history and (c) the policies they propose to solve it / perpetuate it (if they are evil).

The Position Papers which arrive on time should get feedback. This does not need to be more than a few lines per topic. However, we do require you to tell the delegates if they did a good job or if they are lacking in one of the three sections mentioned above. You should also tell them what you want them to improve. In the feedback, where possible, please use examples from their text. To do this most effectively, divide the position papers amongst yourselves and return them when you can. You are not required to send feedback if the delegate sends you an improved position paper. Our main goal is for you to have prepared delegates in your committee, and a rewritten position paper generally indicates better preparation.

  If anyone would like more information on how to give feedback, or have any other questions relating to Position Papers, please let me know in a reply to this email.

  If your delegates write you asking how to write a policy paper, or any other questions, we expect you to be helpful, courteous and available.

  Good Luck

USG Chairing

Not every MUN conference secretariat will have this level of instruction for their Chairs. Some have more; a few give online workshops about Position Papers, while others give no instruction at all. However, in most cases, the final feedback is left to a Chair’s discretion.

If your secretariat left you alone, giving feedback on the basics according to the guidelines at the beginning of this article is a good start. You can also give topic-specific feedback, which uses examples of where more research or analyses can be used, based on what you wrote in your study guide .

11 Questions Chairs Ask When Reading Your Position Paper

Question chairs ask about a quality position paper.

• Did the delegate reframe the topic to make the problem-specific and relevant to them?
• Did they show their country’s relation to the topic?
• Did they offer policies that can gain a majority in the committee?
• Do these policies represent their countries stated interests?
• Did the delegate use examples?
• Do the examples go beyond the information in the study guide?
• Did the writer bring something new, unique and interesting?

Questions You Hope Your Chair Never Asks

• Was this position paper copied and pasted from Wikipedia or some other online source?
• If I change the country name on this super vague paper will it be just as “valid”?
• How inebriated was the delegate when they wrote this?
• Has the writer even heard of Model UN?

Using these questions to measure the quality of your paper will let you review your work with a Chair’s eyes. If the answers to these questions aren’t good enough, then you now know what to work on. A few appropriate modifications can result in a complete makeover of a Position Paper, and possibly a much-improved delegate as well.

Closing thoughts on Position Papers

Position Papers are important. Knowing if the Position Paper will be read only by the Chair or by the delegates should be taken into account when choosing what to write and focus on. Position Paper format should also be taken into account, but not at the expense of quality.

A Position Paper should accomplish three goals: 1. Show a country’s position on the topic being discussed. 2. Show a country’s previous relationship to the topic (preferably with relevant examples). 3. Show policies and ideas that (1) represent the interests of your country and (2) you would ideally like to see in the resolution.

When you’re the Chair, give instructive feedback with specific examples. Your comments could be the difference between a lost delegate or an effective one, or between a good conference and a great one.

Lastly, don’t forget the PReP strategy:

In Policy (paragraph 3) you solve the issue in Position (paragraph 1) with the tools and relevance you set up in Relation (paragraph 2).

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How Biden Adopted Trump’s Trade War With China

The president has proposed new barriers to electric vehicles, steel and other goods..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

From “The New York Times,” I’m Sabrina Tavernise, and this is “The Daily.”

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Donald Trump upended decades of American policy when he started a trade war with China. Many thought that President Biden would reverse those policies. Instead, he’s stepping them up. Today, my colleague, Jim Tankersley, explains.

It’s Monday, May 13.

Jim, it’s very nice to have you in the studio.

It’s so great to be here, Sabrina. Thank you so much.

So we are going to talk today about something I find very interesting and I know you’ve been following. We’re in the middle of a presidential campaign. You are an economics reporter looking at these two candidates, and you’ve been trying to understand how Trump and Biden are thinking about our number one economic rival, and that is China.

As we know, Trump has been very loud and very clear about his views on China. What about Biden?

Well, no one is going to accuse President Biden of being as loud as former President Trump. But I think he’s actually been fairly clear in a way that might surprise a lot of people about how he sees economic competition with China.

We’re going after China in the wrong way. China is stealing intellectual property. China is conditioning —

And Biden has, kind of surprisingly, sounded a lot, in his own Joe Biden way, like Trump.

They’re not competing. They’re cheating. They’re cheating. And we’ve seen the damage here in America.

He has been very clear that he thinks China is cheating in trade.

The bottom line is I want fair competition with China, not conflict. And we’re in a stronger position to win the economic competition of the 21st century against China or anyone else because we’re investing in America and American workers again. Finally.

And maybe the most surprising thing from a policy perspective is just how much Biden has built on top of the anti-China moves that Trump made and really is the verge of his own sort of trade war with China.

Interesting. So remind us, Jim, what did Trump do when he actually came into office? We, of course, remember Trump really talking about China and banging that drum hard during the campaign, but remind us what he actually did when he came into office.

Yeah, it’s really instructive to start with the campaign, because Trump is talking about China in some very specific ways.

We have a $500 billion deficit, trade deficit, with China. We’re going to turn it around. And we have the cards. Don’t forget —

They’re ripping us off. They’re stealing our jobs.

They’re using our country as a piggy bank to rebuild China, and many other countries are doing the same thing. So we’re losing our good jobs, so many.

The economic context here is the United States has lost a couple of million jobs in what was called the China shock of the early 2000s. And Trump is tapping into that.

But when the Chinese come in, and they want to make great trade deals — and they make the best trade deals, and not anymore. When I’m there, we turn it around, folks. We turn it around. We have —

And what he’s promising as president is that he’s going to bring those jobs back.

I’ll be the greatest jobs president that God ever created. I’ll take them back from China, from Japan.

And not just any jobs, good-paying manufacturing jobs, all of it — clothes, shoes, steel, all of these jobs that have been lost that American workers, particularly in the industrial Midwest, used to do. Trump’s going to bring them back with policy meant to rebalance the trade relationship with China to get a better deal with China.

So he’s saying China is eating our lunch and has been for decades. That’s the reason why factory workers in rural North Carolina don’t have work. It’s those guys. And I’m going to change that.

Right. And he likes to say it’s because our leaders didn’t cut the right deal with them, so I’m going to make a better deal. And to get a better deal, you need leverage. So a year into his presidency, he starts taking steps to amass leverage with China.

And so what does that look like?

Just an hour ago, surrounded by a hand-picked group of steelworkers, President Trump revealed he was not bluffing.

It starts with tariffs. Tariffs are taxes that the government imposes on imports.

Two key global imports into America now face a major new barrier.

Today, I’m defending America’s national security by placing tariffs on foreign imports of steel and aluminum.

And in this case, it’s imports from a lot of different countries, but particularly China.

Let’s take it straight to the White House. The president of the United States announcing new trade tariffs against China. Let’s listen in.

This has been long in the making. You’ve heard —

So Trump starts, in 2018, this series of tariffs that he’s imposing on all sorts of things — washing machines, solar panels, steel, aluminum. I went to Delaware to a lighting store at that time, I remember, where basically everything they sold came from China and was subject to the Trump tariffs, because that’s where lighting was made now.

Interesting.

Hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods now start falling under these Trump tariffs. The Chinese, of course, don’t take this lying down.

China says it is not afraid of a trade war with the US, and it’s fighting back against President Trump with its own tariffs on US goods.

They do their own retaliatory tariffs. Now American exports to China cost more for Chinese consumers. And boom, all of a sudden, we are in the midst of a full-blown trade war between the United States and Beijing.

Right. And that trade war was kind of a shock because for decades, politicians had avoided that kind of policy. It was the consensus of the political class in the United States that there should not be tariffs like that. It should be free trade. And Trump just came in and blew up the consensus.

Yeah. And Sabrina, I may have mentioned this once or 700 times before on this program, but I talk to a lot of economists in my job.

Yeah, it’s weird. I talk to a lot of economists. And in 2018 when this started, there were very, very, very few economists of any political persuasion who thought that imposing all these tariffs were a good idea. Republican economists in particular, this is antithetical to how they think about the world, which is low taxes, free trade. And even Democratic economists who thought they had some problems with the way free trade had been conducted did not think that Trump’s “I’m going to get a better deal” approach was going to work. And so there was a lot of criticism at the time, and a lot of politicians really didn’t like it, a lot of Democrats, many Republicans. And it all added up to just a real, whoa, I don’t think this is going to work.

So that begs the question, did it?

Well, it depends on what you mean by work. Economically, it does not appear to have achieved what Trump wanted. There’s no evidence yet in the best economic research that’s been done on this that enormous amounts of manufacturing jobs came back to the United States because of Trump’s tariffs. There was research, for example, on the tariffs on washing machines. They appear to have helped a couple thousand jobs, manufacturing jobs be created in the United States, but they also raised the price of washing machines for everybody who bought them by enough that each additional job that was created by those tariffs effectively cost consumers, like, $800,000 per job.

There’s like lots of evidence that the sectors Trump was targeting to try to help here, he didn’t. There just wasn’t a lot of employment rebound to the United States. But politically, it really worked. The tariffs were very popular. They had this effect of showing voters in those hollowed-out manufacturing areas that Trump was on their team and that he was fighting for them. Even if they didn’t see the jobs coming back, they felt like he was standing up for them.

So the research suggests this was a savvy political move by Trump. And in the process, it sort of changes the political economic landscape in both parties in the United States.

Right. So Trump made these policies that seemed, for many, many years in the American political system, fringe, isolationist, economically bad, suddenly quite palatable and even desirable to mainstream policymakers.

Yeah. Suddenly getting tough on China is something everyone wants to do across both parties. And so from a political messaging standpoint, being tough on China is now where the mainstream is. But at the same time, there is still big disagreement over whether Trump is getting tough on China in the right way, whether he’s actually being effective at changing the trade relationship with China.

Remember that Trump was imposing these tariffs as a way to get leverage for a better deal with China. Well, he gets a deal of sorts, actually, with the Chinese government, which includes some things about tariffs, and also China agreeing to buy some products from the United States. Trump spins it as this huge win, but nobody else really, including Republicans, acts like Trump has solved the problem that Trump himself has identified. This deal is not enough to make everybody go, well, everything’s great with China now. We can move on to the next thing.

China remains this huge issue. And the question of what is the most effective way to deal with them is still an animating force in politics.

Got it. So politically, huge win, but policy-wise and economically, and fundamentally, the problem of China still very much unresolved.

Absolutely.

So then Biden comes in. What does Biden do? Does he keep the tariffs on?

Biden comes to office, and there remains this real pressure from economists to roll back what they consider to be the ineffective parts of Trump’s trade policy. That includes many of the tariffs. And it’s especially true at a time when almost immediately after Biden takes office, inflation spikes. And so Americans are paying a lot of money for products, and there’s this pressure on Biden, including from inside his administration, to roll back some of the China tariffs to give Americans some relief on prices.

And Biden considers this, but he doesn’t do it. He doesn’t reverse Trump’s tariff policy. In the end, he’s actually building on it.

We’ll be right back.

So Jim, you said that Biden is actually building on Trump’s anti-China policy. What exactly does that look like?

So Biden builds on the Trump China policy in three key ways, but he does it with a really specific goal that I just want you to keep in mind as we talk about all of this, which is that Biden isn’t just trying to beat China on everything. He’s not trying to cut a better deal. Biden is trying to beat China in a specific race to own the clean-energy future.

Clean energy.

Yeah. So keep that in mind, clean energy. And the animating force behind all of the things Biden does with China is that Biden wants to beat China on what he thinks are the jobs of the future, and that’s green technology.

Got it. OK. So what does he do first?

OK. Thing number one — let’s talk about the tariffs. He does not roll them back. And actually, he builds on them. For years, for the most part, he just lets the tariffs be. His administration reviews them. And it’s only now, this week, when his administration is going to actually act on the tariffs. And what they’re going to do is raise some of them. They’re going to raise them on strategic green tech things, like electric vehicles, in order to make them more expensive.

And I think it’s important to know the backdrop here, which is since Biden has taken office, China has started flooding global markets with really low-cost green technologies. Solar panels, electric vehicles are the two really big ones. And Biden’s aides are terrified that those imports are going to wash over the United States and basically wipe out American automakers, solar panel manufacturers, that essentially, if Americans can just buy super-cheap stuff from China, they’re not going to buy it from American factories. Those factories are going to go out of business.

So Biden’s goal of manufacturing jobs in clean energy, China is really threatening that by dumping all these products on the American market.

Exactly. And so what he wants to do is protect those factories with tariffs. And that means increasing the tariffs that Trump put on electric vehicles in hopes that American consumers will find them too expensive to buy.

But doesn’t that go against Biden’s goal of clean energy and things better for the environment? Lots of mass-market electric vehicles into the United States would seem to advance that goal. And here, he’s saying, no, you can’t come in.

Right, because Biden isn’t just trying to reduce emissions at all costs. He wants to reduce emissions while boosting American manufacturing jobs. He doesn’t want China to get a monopoly in these areas. And he’s also, in particular, worried about the politics of lost American manufacturing jobs. So Biden does not want to just let you buy cheaper Chinese technologies, even if that means reducing emissions.

He wants to boost American manufacturing of those things to compete with China, which brings us to our second thing that Biden has done to build on Trump’s China policy, which is that Biden has started to act like the Chinese government in particular areas by showering American manufacturers with subsidies.

I see. So dumping government money into American businesses.

Yes, tax incentives, direct grants. This is a way that China has, in the past decades, built its manufacturing dominance, is with state support for factories. Biden is trying to do that in particular targeted industries, including electric vehicles, solar power, wind power, semiconductors. Biden has passed a bunch of legislation that showers those sectors with incentives and government support in hopes of growing up much faster American industry.

Got it. So basically, Biden is trying to beat China at its own game.

Yeah, he’s essentially using tariffs to build a fortress around American industry so that he can train the troops to fight the clean energy battle with China.

And the troops being American companies.

Yes. It’s like, we’re going to give them protection — protectionist policy — in order to get up to size, get up to strength as an army in this battle for clean energy dominance against the Chinese.

Got it. So he’s trying to build up the fortress. What’s the third thing Biden does? You mentioned three things.

Biden does not want the United States going it alone against China. He’s trying to build an international coalition, wealthy countries and some other emerging countries that are going to take on China and try to stop the Chinese from using their trade playbook to take over all these new emerging industrial markets.

But, Jim, why? What does the US get from bringing our allies into this trade war? Why does the US want that?

Some of this really is about stopping China from gaining access to new markets. It’s like, if you put the low-cost Chinese exports on a boat, and it’s going around the world, looking for a dock to stop and offload the stuff and sell it, Biden wants barriers up at every possible port. And he wants factories in those places that are competing with the Chinese.

And a crucial fact to know here is that the United States and Europe, they are behind China when it comes to clean-energy technology. The Chinese government has invested a lot more than America and Europe in building up its industrial capacity for clean energy. So America and its allies want to deny China dominance of those markets and to build up their own access to them.

And they’re behind, so they’ve got to get going. It’s like they’re in a race, and they’re trailing.

Yeah, it’s an economic race to own these industries, and it’s that global emissions race. They also want to be bringing down fossil-fuel emissions faster than they currently are, and this is their plan.

So I guess, Jim, the question in my mind is, Trump effectively broke the seal, right? He started all of these tariffs. He started this trade war with China. But he did it in this kind of jackhammer, non-targeted way, and it didn’t really work economically. Now Biden is taking it a step further. But the question is, is his effort here going to work?

The answer to whether it’s going to work really depends on what your goals are. And Biden and Trump have very different goals. If Trump wins the White House back, he has made very clear that his goal is to try to rip the United States trade relationship with China even more than he already has. He just wants less trade with China and more stuff of all types made in the United States that used to be made in China. That’s a very difficult goal, but it’s not Biden’s goal.

Biden’s goal is that he wants America to make more stuff in these targeted industries. And there is real skepticism from free-market economists that his industrial policies will work on that, but there’s a lot of enthusiasm for it from a new strain of Democratic economists, in particular, who believe that the only chance Biden has to make that work is by pulling all of these levers, by doing the big subsidies and by putting up the tariffs, that you have to have both the troops training and the wall around them. And if it’s going to work, he has to build on the Trump policies. And so I guess you’re asking, will it work? It may be dependent upon just how far he’s willing to go on the subsidies and the barriers.

There’s a chance of it.

So, Jim, at the highest level, whatever the economic outcome here, it strikes me that these moves by Biden are pretty remarkably different from the policies of the Democratic Party over the decades, really going in the opposite direction. I’m thinking of Bill Clinton and NAFTA in the 1990s. Free trade was the real central mantra of the Democratic Party, really of both parties.

Yeah, and Biden is a real break from Clinton. And Clinton was the one who actually signed the law that really opened up trade with China, and Biden’s a break from that. He’s a break from even President Obama when he was vice president. Biden is doing something different. He’s breaking from that Democratic tradition, and he’s building on what Trump did, but with some throwback elements to it from the Roosevelt administration and the Eisenhower administration. This is this grand American tradition of industrial policy that gave us the space race and the interstate highway system. It’s the idea of using the power of the federal government to build up specific industrial capacities. It was in vogue for a time. It fell out of fashion and was replaced by this idea that the government should get out of the way, and you let the free market drive innovation. And now that industrial policy idea is back in vogue, and Biden is doing it.

So it isn’t just a shift or an evolution. It’s actually a return to big government spending of the ‘30s and the ‘40s and the ‘50s of American industrialism of that era. So what goes around comes around.

Yeah, and it’s a return to that older economic theory with new elements. And it’s in part because of the almost jealousy that American policymakers have of China and the success that it’s had building up its own industrial base. But it also has this political element to it. It’s, in part, animated by the success that Trump had making China an issue with working-class American voters.

You didn’t have to lose your job to China to feel like China was a stand-in for the forces that have taken away good-paying middle-class jobs from American workers who expected those jobs to be there. And so Trump tapped into that. And Biden is trying to tap into that. And the political incentives are pushing every future American president to do more of that. So I think we are going to see even more of this going forward, and that’s why we’re in such an interesting moment right now.

So we’re going to see more fortresses.

More fortresses, more troops, more money.

Jim, thank you.

You’re welcome.

Here’s what else you should know today. Intense fighting between Hamas fighters and Israeli troops raged in parts of Northern Gaza over the weekend, an area where Israel had declared Hamas defeated earlier in the war, only to see the group reconstitute in the power vacuum that was left behind. The persistent lawlessness raised concerns about the future of Gaza among American officials. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on “Face the Nation” on Sunday that the return of Hamas to the North left him concerned that Israeli victories there would be, quote, “not sustainable,” and said that Israel had not presented the United States with any plan for when the war ends.

And the United Nations aid agency in Gaza said early on Sunday that about 300,000 people had fled from Rafah over the past week, the city in the enclave’s southernmost tip where more than a million displaced Gazans had sought shelter from Israeli bombardments elsewhere. The UN made the announcement hours after the Israeli government issued new evacuation orders in Rafah, deepening fears that the Israeli military was preparing to invade the city despite international warnings.

Today’s episode was produced by Nina Feldman, Carlos Prieto, Sidney Harper, and Luke Vander Ploeg. It was edited by M.J. Davis Lin, Brendan Klinkenberg, and Lisa Chow. Contains original music by Diane Wong, Marion Lozano, and Dan Powell, and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Sabrina Tavernise. See you tomorrow.

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• May 13, 2024   •   27:46 How Biden Adopted Trump’s Trade War With China
• May 10, 2024   •   27:42 Stormy Daniels Takes the Stand
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• May 7, 2024   •   27:43 How Changing Ocean Temperatures Could Upend Life on Earth
• May 6, 2024   •   29:23 R.F.K. Jr.’s Battle to Get on the Ballot
• May 3, 2024   •   25:33 The Protesters and the President
• May 2, 2024   •   29:13 Biden Loosens Up on Weed
• May 1, 2024   •   35:16 The New Abortion Fight Before the Supreme Court
• April 30, 2024   •   27:40 The Secret Push That Could Ban TikTok

Hosted by Sabrina Tavernise

Produced by Nina Feldman ,  Carlos Prieto ,  Sydney Harper and Luke Vander Ploeg

Edited by M.J. Davis Lin ,  Brendan Klinkenberg and Lisa Chow

Original music by Diane Wong ,  Marion Lozano and Dan Powell

Engineered by Alyssa Moxley

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Donald Trump upended decades of American policy when he started a trade war with China. Many thought that President Biden would reverse those policies. Instead, he’s stepping them up.

Jim Tankersley, who covers economic policy at the White House, explains.

On today’s episode

Jim Tankersley , who covers economic policy at the White House for The New York Times.

Background reading

Mr. Biden, competing with Mr. Trump to be tough on China , called for steel tariffs last month.

The Biden administration may raise tariffs on electric vehicles from China to 100 percent .

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