US President Joe Biden’s pick for top trade negotiator is pledging to work with allies to take on China, while also embarking on a pragmatic approach to the Asian nation, saying that China is both a rival and partner whose cooperation the US needs to address global challenges.
Without going into specifics of how she would address tariffs, export bans and other key issues, Katherine Tai (戴琪), Biden’s nominee for US trade representative, said that she knows the “opportunities and limitations in our existing toolbox.”
“We must recommit to working relentlessly with others to promote and defend our shared values of freedom, democracy, truth, and opportunity in a just society,” Tai said in remarks seen by Bloomberg ahead of her confirmation hearing yesterday before the US Senate Committee on Finance.
Photo: Reuters
The comments illustrate how Tai would pursue a hard line in US-China negotiations, while also indicating a more methodical and practical style to distance the Biden administration from the chaos that defined the trade agenda of former US president Donald Trump.
Tai, whose nomination requires Senate approval, is expected to play a key role in setting and implementing Biden’s trade policy, which they have promised to focus on workers and the middle class.
Tai spent the past four years as the chief counsel for Democrats on the US House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means, which is responsible for trade.
She was a key figure in negotiations with the Trump administration and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on a revamped North American Free Trade Agreement, which passed the House and Senate with overwhelming bipartisan majorities and was signed by Trump last year.
Among the trade challenges facing the Biden administration is deciding what to do with the so-called phase 1 trade agreement that Trump signed with China early last year and the more than US$350 billion in tariffs that remain in place.
Biden has pledged to work with allies to confront China rather than face the nation alone as Trump did, a theme echoed by Tai.
She is likely to face questions from senators on Biden’s approach to the tariffs on Chinese goods, which his administration has indicated it would not change before a review of trade policy is complete.
Other topics could include trade with the EU, policy toward the WTO and the Trump administration’s ban on US firms exporting to Chinese companies including Huawei Technologies Co (華為).
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