Reports indicate that Katherine Tai, Chief Trade Counsel for the House Ways and Means Committee, is Biden's choice for U.S. Trade Representative. About a month ago, I wrote the following:
the job of the next U.S. Trade Representative will be a serious challenge. The person who takes it will need experience and objectivity in order to navigate through all these issues. We need someone who is knowledgeable, pragmatic, non-ideological, familiar with both the key Congressional players and foreign government officials, and not closely tied to special interests.
From what I can tell, Tai meets these criteria pretty well and seems like a good choice for the job.
So what will her specific agenda be as U.S. Trade Representative? That's hard to say. In an earlier post, I provided a transcript of some of her recent statements on trade policy issues. But in these contexts, she was offering general thoughts during somewhat casual discussions of trade policy issues, rather than committing to particular policies. And, of course, her thoughts about some of these issues may change a bit as she moves into the role of chief U.S. trade policy-maker and has to balance out the views of various interest groups and make definitive choices on the direction of policy.
One thing that struck me is how she was able to get support from both the progressive and moderate wings of the Democratic party. That's not an easy thing to do in trade policy. How she balances the competing demands of those groups will be one of her big challenges, especially if she also has to deal with a Republican-controlled Senate.
Finally, it will be interesting to see who gets the Deputy positions and other key staff positions. The background of the people chosen may tell us a little more about the direction of trade policy in a Biden administration.
