By Trevor Hunnicutt and Andrea Shalal
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President-elect Joe Biden has selected Katherine Tai, the House Ways and Means Committee’s chief trade lawyer, to serve as U.S. trade representative, three sources familiar with the decision said on Wednesday.
Tai, 45, who was strongly backed by congressional Democrats, played a key role in negotiating stronger labor provisions with the Trump administration in the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade deal, and has the support of labor and business circles.
The job, sometimes called the “trade czar,” is expected to be a linchpin position as Biden races to rebuild ties with key allies, re-energize manufacturing at home and punish Beijing for anti-competitive trade practices.
A Yale and Harvard-educated Chinese American who speaks Mandarin and taught university English for two years in Guangzhou, Tai headed China trade enforcement at the U.S. Trade Representative’s office (USTR) from 2011 to 2014.
In that role, Tai was the main attorney litigating trade violation cases against China before the World Trade Organization.
Biden’s decision was first reported by Politico. A spokesman for his transition declined to comment.
In August, Tai called for a different approach to China from the 2-1/2-year tariff war waged by current trade czar Robert Lighthizer, arguing that the United States needed a better offense than tariffs, which were largely defensive.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in New York, Andrea Shalal in Washington; Additional reporting by Michael Martina, Eric Beech and David Lawder; Editing by Peter Cooney)
