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WASHINGTON – Confronting China over its unfair trade practices will be a “key priority” in his administration, US President-elect Joe Biden said on Friday (December 11), introducing veteran business attorney Katherine Tai as his choice. for the most important trade in the country. sent and advisor.
Ms. Tai, 45, a director of business advisers for the House Ways and Means Committee, worked for the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) from 2007 to 2014.
During this time, she became the top executor of trade against China’s unfair trade practices from 2011 to 2014, linking trading partners to successfully bring cases against China to the World Trade Organization.
“She understands that we need to be more strategic in the way we trade, in a way that makes us all stronger and leaves no one behind,” Biden said, adding that Ms Tai will work closely with her economy. , national security and foreign affairs. policy teams.
If confirmed by the Senate, Ms. Tai will be the first Asian American to serve at USTR.
Beyond her strong credentials and sophisticated understanding of business issues, Ms. Tai also “embodies a powerful immigrant story in America,” Biden said.
His parents were born in mainland China and raised in Taiwan. They moved to the United States as science graduate students in the 1960s, following immigration reforms that allowed a wave of Asian immigrants to the United States.
Ms. Tai’s father became a researcher at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland, helping the United States Army advance treatments for American troops who fought in the Vietnam War, Ms. Tai said. on Friday after being introduced by Biden.
He added that his mother still works at the National Institutes of Health, the US government’s medical research center, developing treatments for opioid addiction.
Her parents naturalized in the United States in 1979, five years after Ms. Tai was born in Connecticut. She was “the first American in our family,” she said.
Ms Tai, a Yale and Harvard graduate, is fluent in Mandarin and taught English for two years at Zhongshan University in Guangzhou, China in the late 1990s.
Trade observers said Ms. Tai will have the stomach and the experience to take on China. But its past track record suggests that it can do so in a different way than the Trump administration: under the umbrella of multilateral organizations and together with partners.
“Tai will be completely comfortable taking on China aggressively when necessary,” Stephen Olson, a Hong Kong-based Hinrich Foundation researcher and former US trade negotiator, wrote in an online comment.
He hoped that the Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese goods would stay in place at least initially, as Ms Tai directs the USTR Office to conduct a comprehensive review of the Phase One deal that marked a kind of ceasefire. to the trade war between the United States and China.
“She has also been comfortable with subsidies and incentives to reduce America’s over-reliance on Chinese imports,” Olson added.
During his time at the USTR Office, the United States filed several cases against China at the WTO.
One notable victory involved the United States challenging China’s quotas on rare earth mineral exports, which are critical to making tech devices like iPhones and supplied primarily by China.
Ms Tai was credited with luring several countries to join the United States in the rare earths case against China, including Canada, the European Union and Japan.
China lifted quotas in 2015, following the WTO ruling against it in 2014.
As a business attorney for the Democrats, she was instrumental in negotiations with the Trump administration to work on stricter labor and environmental protections in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which was passed with strong bipartisan support in 2019.
This was a demonstration of his ability to find common ground between moderates and progressives, Olson wrote, adding that his talent for threading the needle into difficult compromises would become more important as the Biden administration navigates complicated domestic politics.
“She brings not only business experience to the job, but also the ability to solve problems with all sides of the political spectrum. Those skills will be needed as we navigate post-Trump trade policy,” former USTR Acting Representative Wendy wrote. Cutler on Twitter. .
Biden said: “It has earned the praise of lawmakers from both parties and also from workers and businesses. That is quite a feat.”
Turning to Ms. Tai, he added, “I have more calls congratulating me on your date than I can imagine.”
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