U.S. President Elect Donald Trump has named Robert Lighthizer to be U.S. Trade Representative. This is a statement that he offered in testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. He is a trade lawyer and during the Reagan Administration served as Deputy U.S. Trade Representative and as the chief of staff to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance. He left government in 1985 to become a lobbyist. In 1996 he served as treasurer for the Dole Presidential Campaign (Dole chaired the Senate Committee when Lighthizer served there). His full testimony is available at the link below.
Conclusion
The optimistic promises made at the time Congress approved PNTR have not been fulfilled. Years of passivity and drift among U.S. policymakers have allowed the U.S.China trade deficit to grow to the point where is widely recognized as a major threat to our economy.
Going forward, U.S. policymakers should take these problems more seriously, and should take a much more aggressive approach in dealing with China.
