United States Trade Representative Nominee Needs Waiver

Falls Church, VA (AIIS) - President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the United States Trade Representative needs to get a waiver before being confirmed by the Senate.

Trump in January picked Robert Lighthizer, an attorney who is is generally regarded as having protectionist views on trade, to be the top American trade official. Lighthizer served as Deputy United States Trade Representative during the Reagan administration, and has represented China and Brazil on trade issues. The 1995 Lobbying Disclosure Act prohibits anyone who has represented a foreign government in a trade case from becoming the U.S. Trade Representative, but such a person may serve in the top trade position if Congress approves a waiver, as it did in 1997 for Charlene Barshefsky.

“We want to get him through,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said.

“We’ve got to get a waiver first. But we want to get him through.”

The Finance Committee will hold the confirmation hearing for Lighthizer.

In recent years, Lighthizer has represented U.S. Steel. He has also frequently criticized China.

In a 2011 column in the Washington Times, he wrote, “Markets do not run better when manufacturing shifts to China largely because of the actions of its government. Nor do they become more efficient when Chinese companies are given special privileges in global markets, while American companies must struggle to compete with unfairly traded goods.”

Courtesy : AIIS Newsletter