[CTC] Biden: Tai as trade chief will help U.S. ‘dig out’ of economic crisis

Fri Dec 11 06:39:15 PST 2020

Biden: Tai as trade chief will help U.S. ‘dig out’ of economic crisis
By Dan Dupont and Isabelle Icso 
12/10/2020, Inside US Trade
President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for U.S. Trade Representative, Katherine Tai, will help the U.S. “dig out of the COVID-induced economic crisis,” he said on Thursday in formally announcing his intent to nominate her.
In a statement, Biden said Tai’s “deep experience” will allow the incoming administration “to hit the ground running on trade, and harness the power of our trading relationships to help the U.S. dig out of the COVID-induced economic crisis and pursue the President-elect’s vision of a pro-American worker trade strategy.”
Tai is the chief trade counsel for the House Ways & Means Committee and a former USTR official. She has long been viewed as a frontrunner for the position.
Biden called Tai “a dedicated, deeply respected public servant and veteran international trade expert who has spent her career working to level the playing field for American workers and families.... If confirmed, she would be the first Asian American and first woman of color to serve in this position.”
Tai, a former chief counsel for China trade enforcement at USTR, reportedly is fluent in Mandarin Chinese. News of Biden’s intent to nominate <https://insidetrade.com/node/170197> her for USTR drew praise from several Democrats including Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), a House Ways & Means member and chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. Chu was one of 10 female Democrats in the House to recommend Tai to Biden.
“From our work together on Ways and Means, I have seen firsthand Ms. Tai’s skill and experience with trade deals and have been impressed by her work on the United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) Agreement, as well as her vast knowledge of the current and coming trade challenges,” Chu said in a statement issued with Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR). “Through her work as Chief Counsel for China Trade Enforcement at USTR, Ms. Tai has also demonstrated her commitment to enforcing trade deals that work for the United States.”
“Additionally, if the reports are true that Ms. Tai will be nominated to be the U.S. Trade Representative, then this would also be an historic announcement,” Chu added. “Katherine would be the first Asian American and the first woman of color to serve in this role, breaking barriers and clearing the way for others to follow. She would also be one of the highest ranking Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) officials in our government. For over two decades, there has always been AAPI representation in the Cabinet, and I am glad to see that continuing.”
House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) said Tai was “absolutely the best choice for this critical position.”
“I cannot speak highly enough of Katherine Tai,” Neal said on Thursday. “Her time with Ways and Means is filled with many accomplishments, but none greater than the key role she played behind the scenes in our successful work to improve the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement and secure widespread support for its passage. Elected officials across the political spectrum, labor leaders, and the business community all trust Katherine, and for good reason. Her exceptional experience and expertise are rivaled only by her understated grit and sterling character.”
“As the United States seeks to repair strained relationships with our partners around the world and address increasingly perilous challenges from China, Katherine will be an honorable and effective representative for this nation, our people, and our interests.”
Tai on a Biden trade approach
During a September event <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1L5mlEJOKc> hosted by the American Society for International Law, Tai was asked what a Biden administration trade policy might look like. Noting she was speaking in a personal capacity, Tai said “I think if I'm going to go to the bottom line immediately and to be very, very honest, my answer is I don't know, right?”
Tai then offered her “best guess” based on what Biden had said and released on trade to that point. “[I] think there are a couple things that you can glean from those plans,” she said, according to a transcript published on the International Economic Law and Policy Blog <https://ielp.worldtradelaw.net/2020/11/katherine-tai-on-various-trade-policy-issues.html>. “The first one is that as you read through the plans, there's a very, very clear emphasis placing a priority on the American worker, on the building up of and prosperity for individual Americans and different American communities. So, I think there's a very, very clear theme in terms of an inclusive prosperity that Biden is working toward.”
“The other thing I would note is that if you're looking at the plans that the campaign has put out, there is one on building back better,” she added. “There's one on … essentially making things in America and manufacturing, having Americans manufacture. And there's another one on supply chains. What I think is quite interesting about this is that there are trade implications in each of these plans.”
However, as Tai noted, Biden didn’t put forth a plan “specifically dedicated to trade itself. And so, what that tells me as well is that the Biden Administration's posture on trade and investment policy is to approach it in a more holistic manner, so that's what I would expect. And I think that they're very promising ideas and I would love a chance for all of us to see what the Biden administration would bring on trade.”
Asked how Biden and his trade team might approach the World Trade Organization, Tai noted that Democrats had found some “common ground” with the Trump administration on trade, but added “I don't think that there's many Democrats -- I haven't met a single Democrat but that's not to say that there might not be some out there -- who would have done things in the same way that the Trump Administration has.”
However, she added, addressing the WTO, “if you look at the substance of the concerns and issues that this administration has been raising in Geneva and here at home, I think that you find very little difference in the substance from the kinds of concerns and interests that previous administrations from both parties have made. And so, this is one of those issues where I really, as I said, it hasn't been a partisan issue, and I really hope that it doesn't become a partisan issue.”
Calling the WTO a “great idea,” Tai acknowledged a need for changes after 25 years because “the world is quite different now.” She then drew a parallel to USMCA: “We just went through this whole exercise with USMCA where, you know, there were supporters of the renegotiation of NAFTA because of just the passage of time and the need for modernization. But there also was importantly an element of revisitation and a course correction....”
“[I]n the spirit of being a little bit provocative for purposes of this audience, you know, I would posit that NAFTA and the WTO agreements are from the same era of our economic history, our global economic history,” she added. “And you know, in addition to digitalization of our economy, of changes in technology, and the way that we communicate with each other in the way that we transact commerce, the one incredibly important development has been the economic growth and rise of China in the global economy.”
China also “so far has not been a partisan issue,” Tai said, adding that “2020 is really giving everybody a run for the money in terms of dynamics around China and China trade. But this is an issue where I really hope that it doesn't become partisan because it really is so important, not just for the United States but for our global economic community in terms of dealing with the ways in which the WTO has disappointed expectations, or the ways in which the WTO has not been effective over the course of the past 25 years.”
Tai advocated a strategy for approaching the “China challenge” with “very clear eyes,” saying she hoped the Biden administration would “come in and really crystallize the questions that we are asking, which is ‘What is the nature of the Chinese challenge and the threat?’ And then, have that lead us to conversation around what are the measures then that need to be taken to manage the risk and the threat.”
Without such a “clear process,” Tai said “what makes me nervous about the China dynamics that we're experiencing in 2020 is that reactions become highly emotional, highly political, and risk becoming either ineffective at addressing the risk or threat, which is bad, but even worse the threat is that the actions and the measures that we take are not just ineffective but are actually actively harmful to the goals that we have. So that's one piece of it which is to ask the right questions that will lead to the right kinds of measures. The second piece I would say is build a partnership with Congress. Again, this should not be a partisan issue, and in the past, it has not been a partisan issue. And the third piece is that then, you know, take effective action. Do what you need to defend against anti-competitive practices, but then also do what you need to both here and with others who should share your interests to take the active affirmative measures to make yourself stronger to withstand the competition.” 

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826

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