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Robert Lighthizer, who was US commerce consultant when Donald Trump launched his commerce conflict with China, has been requested to take the job once more because the president-elect begins to construct his cupboard staff.
A number of folks conversant in the discussions inside Trump’s transition staff mentioned Lighthizer had been requested to return to the highest commerce function though he had lobbied for a special place, together with commerce secretary.
Lighthizer had additionally expressed curiosity in serving as Treasury secretary, however that place will almost definitely be provided to a financier, with contenders together with the hedge fund managers Scott Bessent and John Paulson.
However the potential reappointment to the pivotal commerce function of an arch protectionist will make US buying and selling allies, in addition to China nervous, given how intently Lighthizer and Trump are aligned on trade policy. Trump has vowed to impose excessive tariffs on all imports into the US and particularly Chinese language items.
Trump had thought of Lighthizer for commerce secretary however the folks conversant in the personnel discussions mentioned the president-elect was almost definitely to supply that job to Linda McMahon, the billionaire co-chair of Trump’s presidential transition staff.
Brendan Boyle, the Philadelphia congressman who’s the highest Democrat on the influential Home price range committee and a senior member of the methods and means committee that oversees commerce, welcomed the information.
“When Bob Lighthizer was USTR I labored with him on the USMCA [US-Mexico-Canada Agreement]. He was bipartisan in his strategy and is nicely revered on each side of the [political] aisle,” mentioned Boyle.
It stays unclear if Lighthizer will settle for the place. Lighthizer didn’t reply to requests for remark. A spokesperson for Trump additionally didn’t instantly reply.
Robert O’Brien, who served as nationwide safety adviser throughout the first Trump administration and was considered as a powerful contender for secretary of state or to serve once more as nationwide safety adviser, this week instructed his non-public sector consultancy shoppers that he wouldn’t be part of the administration, based on one particular person conversant in the choice.
Lighthizer was extremely regarded by Trump and was one of many few prime degree officers who didn’t undergo his wrath throughout Trump’s first time period as president.
As Trump’s commerce tsar, he presided over a turbulent period for world commerce because the administration repeatedly hit its largest buying and selling companions — together with its allies — with steep levies and tariffs on billions of {dollars}’ value of imports.
A former lawyer for the US metal business, he often clashed with the Geneva-based World Commerce Group, which oversees worldwide commerce disputes, calling it a “mess” that had “failed America”.
His appointment would additionally sign unhealthy information for Nippon Metal, the Japanese firm that has proposed a $15bn acquisition of US Metal. Trump has already signalled his opposition to the deal, however Lighthizer would nearly actually be a powerful opponent of the deal.
Lighthizer spent three a long time as an lawyer at Wall Avenue regulation agency Skadden Arps, the place he fought imports from China on behalf of the US metal business, together with US Metal. Within the early 2000s, he helped persuade George W Bush’s administration to impose tariffs on metal imports to guard the US business.
Throughout his earlier tenure as commerce consultant, Washington moved away from putting commerce offers pushed by enterprise pursuits and as a substitute centered on measures designed to reshore manufacturing and defend American employees. Regardless of this, Lighthizer agreed restricted commerce offers with China and Japan, and up to date the US’s cope with Mexico and Canada.
Writing in the Financial Times simply earlier than the US election, Lighthizer blamed free commerce for the lack of American manufacturing jobs and referred to as the US commerce deficit “alarming”. “Going through a system that’s critically failing our nation, Trump has determined that motion should be taken,” he wrote.
