[CTC] Vaughn named acting U.S. Trade Representative and general counsel

[Arthur Stamoulis]

INSIDE US TRADE
 
Vaughn named acting U.S. Trade Representative and general counsel
 
March 3, 2017
Steel attorney Stephen Vaughn has been named the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's general counsel and acting U.S. Trade Representative, according to the agency.

Vaughn, who was a member of President Trump's USTR transition team, was expected to be chosen for the general counsel's job once Robert Lighthizer is confirmed as USTR. Sources last month told Inside U.S. Trade that Vaughn – in an unofficial capacity – was already working out of the chief of staff's office at USTR <https://insidetrade.com/node/157665> and was familiarizing himself with issues and staff.

Vaughn's appointment to the general counsel's office and designation as acting trade representative were not announced by the agency, but his new roles are listed on the USTR website and were confirmed by an agency official.

According to sources, Vaughn has tasked USTR staff to prepare material that would lay out ways to move away from using the WTO dispute settlement system.

The Trump administration, in its first annual trade policy agenda <https://insidetrade.com/node/157743>, stressed this week that the U.S. “will aggressively defend American sovereignty over matters of trade policy.”

In a draft of the report obtained by Inside U.S. Trade on Feb. 28, USTR laid out as one of the “key principles” of the Trump administration's trade agenda a plan to resist “efforts by other countries – or international bodies like the World Trade Organization (WTO) – to weaken the rights and benefits of, or increase the obligations under, the various trade agreements to which the United States is a party.”

But the official report, published on March 1, was modified to read that the U.S. would be “resisting efforts by other countries – or Members of international bodies like the World Trade Organization (WTO) – to advance interpretations that would weaken the rights and benefits of, or increase the obligations under, the various trade agreements to which the United States is a party.”

The report's strong stance on the WTO as a whole and its dispute settlement mechanism in particular has led lawmakers to urge the administration not to withdraw from the global trading system <https://insidetrade.com/node/157756> but instead to improve it.

Vaughn, who used to work with Lighthizer, has experience in defending the U.S. steel industry. Lighthizer – who has also represented steel companies – is awaiting a confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. His confirmation requires a waiver to a provision of the 1974 Trade Act because of his work he did for foreign governments in the 1980s.

Vaughn replaces Maria Pagan as acting USTR; she had served in the role since the Trump administration took office. Pagan is the agency's deputy general counsel, a job she also held during the Obama administration.

Sources have said the U.S. will “most likely” send the acting USTR to a trade summit slated to take place in Chile later this month, but USTR toldInside U.S. Trade this week that the administration “has not made a final decision on who will represent the United States <https://insidetrade.com/node/157763> at that meeting.” – Jenny Leonard (jleonard at iwpnews.com <mailto:jleonard at iwpnews.com>)


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