[CTC] AFL-CIO favors Tai staying at USTR if Harris wins

[Arthur Stamoulis]

AFL-CIO favors Tai staying at USTR if Harris wins

By: Doug Palmer, Politico Pro
10/24/2024

The largest U.S. labor organization wants U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to stay in her job if Vice President Kamala Harris becomes president.

“We really think that Ambassador Tai’s leadership has been critical,” Cathy Feingold, director of the AFL-CIO’s international department, said in an interview. “We would support her continued leadership, as well as expanding the staffing she has and the resources and the appropriations that are needed to really implement this vision.”

The statement comes as Kamala Harris has said little publicly about her trade plans, except for criticizing former President Donald Trump’s threat to impose across-the-board tariffs as a tax on consumers. Feingold, who has worked closely with the Biden administration, contributed to a recent report from the Roosevelt Institute <https://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2f598026de21cad9580045441486f465933da933c9f046c87b476ec63b129a138b472edbfb48ef926995ae8e6892a06ebdb76d277e78859d>, a left-leaning economic policy think tank, that also recommended keeping Tai on the job.

Tai, a former Hill staffer “has done a good job of balancing the competing concerns and of bringing labor voices into trade policy making in a way that frankly I find astounding and surprising, relative to past administrations,” Todd Tucker, director of the trade and industrial policy program at the Institute, said.

A Harris campaign spokesperson did not respond to queries about whether Tai could continue to serve as USTR if Harris wins in November, and Tai’s own office also did not reply to questions about whether she would be willing to stay.

Feingold, who spoke by phone from the swing state of Arizona, said organized labor’s top priority right now is helping Harris defeat Trump. If that happens, the group plans to actively engage with Harris during the transition phase on who should fill key cabinet posts.

One advantage Tai offers is that she would not have to be confirmed again by the Senate, freeing up resources that Harris could spend on other nominees that Republicans could try to defeat or wound in the confirmation process.

It would also keep a prominent Asian-American in the cabinet, helping satisfy a key group eager for representation in top government positions.

Like other cabinet positions, USTR is an indefinite appointment. That means Tai can continue to serve until she resigns or is fired, although she's unlikely to insist on staying if Harris wins and signals her desire to put someone else in the job.

It’s also not unprecedented for a cabinet official to serve under two different presidents: Robert Gates was nominated by George W. Bush, a Republican, to serve as defense secretary and stayed in the job for 18 months under Barack Obama, a Democrat <https://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2f598026de21cad9004b928c433860426ab586f68e12b3e24859b4ed2cf1d8387a2800d0552b7db130e54f01d5458da36920b3dd0fe72ade>.

From the AFL-CIO’s perspective, Tai has spent the past four years building a “new path on trade” that it wants to see continued, Feingold said. She praised Tai for meeting with more labor groups around the world than any of her predecessors.

Tai “has done a great job putting workers at the center of trade policy” and elevating the importance of climate concerns in trade policy, agreed Jazz Lewis, legislative director at the Blue-Green Alliance, a coalition representing labor and environmental groups.

The coalition itself does not have a position on whether Tai should remain at USTR, but would like to see someone in the job that shares Tai’s trade priorities and philosophy, Lewis said.

Josh Kagan, a former USTR assistant trade representative for labor affairs now at the Kelley Drye law firm, said Tai deserves credit for combining longstanding Democratic concerns about the importance of improving labor rights among foreign suppliers with a Republican “fair competition” approach given increased emphasis during the Trump administration.

“I think Ambassador Tai embraced both … in a way that was somewhat unique,” Kagan said.

Kagan served at USTR under both Trump and Biden. Both he and Lewis were members of a commission of two dozen labor activists, trade policy specialists, researchers and academics who provided input for the Roosevelt Institute report.


Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826




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