[200321.EN.BIZ] China Critic Katherine Tai is Biden's US Trade Representative

 

LONG-TIME critic of China's trade policies, Katherine Chi Tai, 47, an attorney of United States House Committee on Ways and Means, has been confirmed by a 98-0 US Senate vote as the US Trade Representative, making her the only member of President Joe Biden's cabinet to be confirmed with no opposition.

A member of the Democratic Party, she was nominated in December. Between 2007 and 2014, she successfully argued the US case against China's trade practices before the World Trade Organisation.

Ms Tai was born in Connecticut and grew up in Washington, DC, where she attended Sidwell Friends School. Her parents, who were both born in mainland China, grew up in Taiwan and later immigrated to the United States.

She graduated from Yale with a Bachelor of Arts in history and earned a Juris Doctor from Harvard. She taught English at Sun Yat-sen University as a Yale-China Fellow for two years.

After college, she worked for several law firms, including Baker McKenzie and Miller & Chevalier, and clerked for US District Courts in Washington, DC, and Maryland.

Ms Tai has been critical of Chinese policies. In several instances between 2007 and 2014, she successfully argued the US case against China's trade practices before the World Trade Organisation.

"There are also a lot of areas that are gray areas, where the rules are not clear, or where we don't have rules yet," she said. She also believes the US should work with other countries to counter China.

Ms Tai will succeed Robert Lighthizer, who as Trump's top trade negotiator imposed several tariffs on Chinese imports while negotiating the phase one trade deal the two nations struck in January 2020.

When she testified before the Senate Finance Committee in February, Ms Tai said she wanted to hold China to its phase one commitments. She didn't say whether she would use additional tariffs against China, but noted they were "legitimate tools in the toolbox."

Source : HKSG / Photo : Investopedia.