[CTC] Trump selects Jamieson Greer as USTR & Kevin Hassett to lead the NEC

Wed Nov 27 05:35:13 PST 2024

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/11/27/us/trump-news#jamieson-greer-trade-representative <https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/11/27/us/trump-news#jamieson-greer-trade-representative> 
Trump selects Jamieson Greer as trade representative. <https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/11/27/us/trump-news#jamieson-greer-trade-representative>
President-elect Donald J. Trump on Tuesday picked Jamieson Greer, a lawyer and former Trump official, to serve as his top trade negotiator. The position will be crucial to Mr. Trump’s plans of issuing hefty tariffs on foreign products and rewriting the rules of trade in America’s favor.

Mr. Greer is a partner in international trade at the law firm King & Spalding. During Mr. Trump’s first term, Mr. Greer served as chief of staff to Robert E. Lighthizer, the trade representative at the time. He was involved in the Trump administration’s trade negotiations with China, as well as the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.

Before that, Mr. Greer served in the Air Force, where he was a lawyer who prosecuted and defended U.S. airmen in criminal investigations. He was deployed to Iraq.

“Jamieson will focus the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on reining in the Country’s massive Trade Deficit, defending American Manufacturing, Agriculture, and Services, and opening up Export Markets everywhere,” Mr. Trump said.

The position of trade representative has historically been fairly low profile, but it has taken on greater importance under Mr. Trump. In his first term, the office helped wage a trade war against China, imposed substantial tariffs on its products and negotiated a series of trade deals.

In his next term, Mr. Trump has promised to again make aggressive use of the government’s authority over trade. On Monday, he said he would impose tariffs on all products coming into the United States from Canada, Mexico and China on his first day in office.

In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump said he would use an executive order to levy a 25 percent tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico until drugs and migrants stopped coming over the border. In a separate post, he threatened an additional 10 percent tariff on all products from China, saying that the country was shipping illegal drugs to the United States.

Mr. Trump could be using the threats as an opening wager in negotiations. But they have threatened to disrupt America’s diplomatic and economic relationships, and if enacted, the tariffs would scramble global supply chains and impose costs on American businesses including auto manufacturers, farmers and food packagers.

The U.S. trade representative, a cabinet-level official who carries the rank of ambassador, is charged with carrying out trade negotiations and resolving economic disputes with other countries, as well as working with lawmakers, farmers and business owners to shape trade policy. The representative leads a small agency of more than 200 people that has offices in Washington, Geneva and Brussels.

In addition to carrying out Mr. Trump’s tariff plans, the office is also likely to play an important role in negotiating trade terms with Canada and Mexico. In 2026, the countries are set to revisit the terms of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the trade pact Mr. Trump renegotiated in his first term to replace the NAFTA.

It remains to be seen how exactly Mr. Trump will organize the trade policy posts in his administration. In a post on Truth Social <https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113511235978420631> last Tuesday, Mr. Trump said that Howard Lutnick, his selection for commerce secretary <https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/19/us/politics/howard-lutnick-trump-commerce-secretary.html>, would “lead our tariff and trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative.”

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/11/27/us/trump-news#kevin-hassett-nec-trump <https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/11/27/us/trump-news#kevin-hassett-nec-trump> 
Trump taps Kevin Hassett to lead the National Economic Council. <https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/11/27/us/trump-news#kevin-hassett-nec-trump>
President-elect Donald J. Trump selected Kevin Hassett on Tuesday to be the director of the White House National Economic Council, giving an adviser who served as his top economist during his first term a leading role in steering his economic agenda.

As the director of the N.E.C., Mr. Hassett will work closely with the Treasury secretary to push forward Mr. Trump’s economic plans, focused on cutting taxes, increasing tariffs and expanding energy production. The role is one of the most expansive in the administration and will put Mr. Hassett at the center of the most pressing policy debates.

“He will play an important role in helping American families recover from the Inflation that was unleashed by the Biden Administration,” Mr. Trump said in a statement. “Together, we will renew and improve our record Tax Cuts, and ensure that we have Fair Trade with Countries that have taken advantage of the United States in the past.”

Mr. Trump has been rounding out his economic team, having last week picked Scott Bessent to run the Treasury Department and Howard Lutnick, the former chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald, to lead the Commerce Department. Those positions, unlike the N.E.C. directorship, require Senate confirmation.

Mr. Trump also selected Jamieson Greer <https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/11/27/us/trump-news#jamieson-greer-trade-representative>, a lawyer and former Trump official, to lead the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

Mr. Greer is a partner in international trade at the law firm King & Spalding. During Mr. Trump’s first term, he served as chief of staff to Robert E. Lighthizer, the trade representative at the time. He was involved in the Trump administration’s trade negotiations with China, as well as the renegotiation of NAFTA with Canada and Mexico.

“Jamieson will focus the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on reining in the Country’s massive Trade Deficit, defending American Manufacturing, Agriculture, and Services, and opening up Export Markets everywhere,” Mr. Trump said.

Although Mr. Trump has considered giving top economic jobs to Mr. Lighthizer and Peter Navarro, a China hawk who previously served as his trade adviser, the president-elect instead settled on candidates that some would view as more moderate.

Mr. Hassett was an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, when Mr. Trump chose him to serve as the administration’s top academic economist in 2017. In that role, he was a vocal defender of Mr. Trump’s tax cuts and trade policies. He departed the administration in mid-2019.

Since leaving Mr. Trump’s White House, Mr. Hassett has remained a close adviser to Mr. Trump, often lending credibility to economic ideas that many economists view as unconventional. Mr. Trump has called for even larger tariffs and has promoted tax cuts that some budget experts estimate could cost as much as $15 trillion over a decade.

While he has defended Mr. Trump’s trade policies publicly, Mr. Hassett brought a more traditionally conservative view of economics to the Trump administration and has acknowledged that tariffs — Mr. Trump’s trade weapon of choice — can weaken economic growth.

Mr. Hassett advised Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, during his presidential run. His research has long focused on the potential to expand economic growth and middle-class earnings by cutting corporate tax rates.

When Mr. Hassett was tapped to join Mr. Trump’s first administration, he drew criticism from some of Mr. Trump’s supporters because of his work that argued that immigration spurs economic growth <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/12/us/politics/choice-of-pro-immigration-economic-adviser-riles-trumps-base.html>.

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826

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