Biden trade pick Katherine Tai wins unanimous Senate backing
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Ms Katherine Tai was poised to get bipartisan confirmation as US Trade Representative yesterday after a rare 98-0 procedural vote in the Senate.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON • Ms Katherine Tai, US President Joe Biden's nominee for US Trade Representative, appeared set for confirmation for the role yesterday after winning unanimous support in a Senate procedural vote on Tuesday.
The rare 98-0 vote on the motion to end debate on the nomination means Ms Tai, 47, will easily win bipartisan confirmation. Plans for a vote yesterday on her nomination were confirmed by a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Confirmation would put Ms Tai, a former chief Democratic trade lawyer for the House Ways and Means Committee and USTR China enforcement chief, to work immediately on a range of trade issues.
These include trying to resolve festering disputes with European countries over aircraft subsidies and digital services taxes, confronting Chinese trade practices, and enforcing new labour rights provisions in the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
"Katherine Tai is going to make a great US trade representative," Senate Finance committee chairman Ron Wyden said before the vote. "She's got the right diversity of experience. She's focused on protecting American workers and creating new high-skill, high-wage jobs in this country."
Ms Tai has backed the use of tariffs as a "legitimate tool" to counter China's state-driven economic model and vowed stronger enforcement of trade agreements while promising to end a "race to the bottom" on trade.
"The 98-0 vote in favour does, I believe, show her views are in line with many senators on trade," said Professor Mary Lovely, a trade economist at Syracuse University.
She said Ms Tai has satisfied pro-labour lawmakers by playing an important role in negotiating stronger labour provisions in the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal and has satisfied China hawks by vowing to hold Beijing to its promises.
Only two senators did not participate in the vote: Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis and Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono.
Just before the vote, the Senate voted 81-17 to confirm Ms Isabel Guzman as leader of the Small Business Administration, an agency playing a central role in providing aid to small firms hurt by the coronavirus pandemic.
REUTERS
