The prominence U. S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has in the negotiations could help to determine whether the White House takes a more aggressive or conciliatory approach with China.
As the Trump administration sets out to strike a trade deal with China, confusion surrounds the role one of the president’s more hawkish advisors will play in the talks.
The prominence U. S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has in the negotiations could help to determine whether the White House takes a more aggressive or conciliatory approach with China. A three-month window for the world’s two largest economies to strike a deal starts on Jan. 1. They agreed to a trade war truce on Saturday at the G-20 meeting in Argentina.
Lighthizer, a 71-year-old who joined the Trump administration after decades as an international trade lawyer, leads the agency charged with creating trade deals and resolving disputes. He headed arduous talks with Canadian and Mexican officials that led to a revised North American trade agreement. Lighthizer also backed the tariffs on Chinese imports that the White House deployed as it pushed Beijing to address alleged trade abuses.
Earlier Monday, confusion reigned as details about the meeting with Trump and Xi, and how any agreement would be managed, dribbled out. China had no such problem. Vice Premier Liu He has headed the talks on Beijing’s side during the Trump administration.
Another Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro — a hardliner who advocates a harsh approach to trade policy with China — said Lighthizer would lead negotiations. But Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow both quashed the idea of a nominal leader, instead casting the negotiations as a group effort led by President Donald Trump himself.
However, Kudlow said later Monday that Lighthizer would „take the lead on the negotiations and on the enforcement part“ while Mnuchin handles currency manipulation and other topics.
Regardless of whether the trade representative heads the talks, the public contradictions over his role once again reflect the disparate elements of Trump’s economic team.
