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Robert Lighthizer
Robert Lighthizer served as the U.S. trade representative (USTR) from 2017 to 2021. He was a member of President Donald Trump's (R) administration. The Senate confirmed his nomination on May 11, 2017, by a vote of 82-14.[1] He left office on January 20, 2021.
Before serving as USTR, Lighthizer practiced law at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, & Flom LLP. He also served as a deputy USTR during the Reagan administration.[2]
Career
Below is an abbreviated outline of Lighthizer's academic, professional, and political career:[2]
- May 11, 2017-January 20,2021: United States Trade Representative
- 1973: Earned J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center
- 1969: Earned B.A. from Georgetown University
U.S. trade representative
President Donald Trump named Lighthizer as his pick for USTR on January 3, 2017. In a statement, Trump said, “Lighthizer is going to do an outstanding job representing the United States as we fight for good trade deals that put the American worker first. He has extensive experience striking agreements that protect some of the most important sectors of our economy, and has repeatedly fought in the private sector to prevent bad deals from hurting Americans. He will do an amazing job helping turn around the failed trade policies which have robbed so many Americans of prosperity.”[3]
The Senate confirmed his nomination on May 11, 2017, by a vote of 82-14.[1] He left office on January 20, 2021.
Issues
China
- See also: Federal policy on China, 2017-2020
- On March 22, 2018, Lighthizer discussed actions to take against China for unfair trade practices. He said, “First of all, for those of you who don’t know, Section 301 is a statute that gives substantial power, authority to the President to correct actions in certain circumstances where there’s unfair acts, policies, or practices by our trading partners. In this case, the area is technology. Technology is probably the most important part of our economy. There’s 44 million people who work in high-tech knowledge areas. No country has as much technology-intensive industry as the United States. And technology is really the backbone of the future of the American economy. Given these problems, the President asked USTR to conduct a study. … And we concluded that, in fact, China does have a policy of forced technology transfer; of requiring licensing at less than economic value; of state capitalism, wherein they go in and buy technology in the United States in non-economic ways; and then, finally, of cyber theft. … The result of this has been that the President has analyzed it — we have a 200-page study which we will put out — and he has concluded that we should put in place tariffs on appropriate products — we can explain later how we concluded what products they are; that we would put investment restrictions on China with respect to high technology; and that we’ll file a WTO case. Because one of the actions here does involve a WTO violation.”[4]
Donald Trump presidential transition team
Lighthizer was a member of Donald Trump's presidential transition team. He was part of the U.S. Trade Representative landing team.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Hill, "Senate confirms Trump's chief trade negotiator," May 11, 2017
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Skadden.com, "Robert E. Lighthizer," accessed January 3, 2017
- ↑ The Hill, "Trump taps Lighthizer for trade representative," accessed January 3, 2017
- ↑ WhiteHouse.gov, "Remarks by President Trump at Signing of a Presidential Memorandum Targeting China’s Economic Aggression," March 22, 2018
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