ReutersUS President-elect Donald Trump says Jamieson Greer will be his trade representative after taking office on January 20, 2025.
The announcement came after Trump threatened new tariffs – essentially tariffs on imports – from China, Canada and Mexico to get them involved in the illegal flow of people and drugs to the US.
Greer, a trade attorney, is a veteran of Trump’s first term in office — where he was instrumental in imposing tariffs on goods from China.
This time, Greer will be involved in “tightening the massive trade deficit, protecting American manufacturing, agriculture, and services, and opening up export markets everywhere,” Trump said in a statement.
It has been Trump’s long-standing goal to encourage consumers to buy American products by making imports more expensive. Many of the nominees for his 2025 executive team look at China in a strange light.
Greer, who is also a US Air Force veteran, served during Trump’s first term as chief of staff to US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
Meanwhile, the US and China – the world’s two largest economies – are locked in a bitter trade war, imposing tariffs on billions of dollars worth of each other’s goods.
The tariffs imposed on China during his first tenure at the White House were an effort “to encourage the return of manufacturing jobs to America, and to reverse decades of disastrous trade policies,” Trump said in his statement introducing Greer.
Greer was also part of the team that negotiated a new trade agreement with Canada and Mexico to replace the former North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta).
His nomination is one of those that needs to be confirmed by a vote of the US Senate.
Trump’s other choice on Tuesday will be a direct nomination. Kevin Hassett has been named Trump’s top economic adviser, who will lead the White House National Economic Council.
A tariff is a domestic tax levied on goods as they enter the country, proportional to the value of the goods leaving.
The payment is actually paid by the domestic company that imports the goods, not the foreign company that exports them. In that sense, direct taxes are paid by domestic US firms to the US government.
Earlier this week, Trump vowed to impose new tariffs on goods from China, Canada and Mexico – America’s top three trading partners.
He said he would introduce 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada and “an additional 10% tariff, on top of any other tariff” on imports from China.
The three countries responded that this offer would improve their economy, as well as that of the United States.
While analysts have suggested that Trump’s tariff threats may be a negotiating tactic, other businesses told the BBC that they already had economic consequences as they began to accumulate goods and shift supply chains.
With Greer and other names added, Trump’s top team is now in a big place.
On Tuesday, he revealed it again leading Covid lockdown skeptic Jay Bhattacharya to be the next director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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