The Senate Finance Committee heard from Katherine Tai, President Joe Biden's choice to be U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), and she offered some insight into focus should she be confirmed to that role.
Tai pledged her first focus will be on helping the U.S. recover from the pandemic and the “economic crisis.” USTR's role in that is to “build out strong supply chains that will get our economy back on track.”
The longer-term focus will be on making sure that trade benefits all U.S. citizens, not just consumers. “I will make it a priority to implement and enforce the renewed terms of our trade relationship with Canada and Mexico. Too often in the past, Congress and the administration came together to finalize and pass a trade agreement. But then other urgent matters arose and we all moved on.”
She noted the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is an opportunity to “break that trend” as it is an “important step in reforming our approach to trade.” She did not specify issues with the WTO but said that she would “prioritize rebuilding our international alliances and partnerships.” Tai also focused on China, labeling them “simultaneously a rival, a trade partner, and an outsized player whose cooperation we'll also need to address certain global challenges.”
Having previously been the chief enforcer at USTR on China's unfair trade practices, Tai said there must be a “strategic and coherent plan for holding China accountable to its promises and effectively competing with its model of state-directed economics” and backed Biden's call to build a “a united front of U.S. allies” when dealing with China. “We must remember how to walk, chew gum and play chess at the same time.”