United States: Katherine Tai at the head of American commerce
Within the Biden administration, Katherine Tai will handle trade matters.
CHIP SOMODEVILLA GETTY / AFP
Text by: Ariane Gaffuri Follow
9 min
This Monday meets the college of electors who must formalize the result of the presidential election.
Outgoing President Donald Trump still refuses to recognize the poll.
This did not prevent President-elect Joe Biden from forming his cabinet.
Katherine Tai, specialist in trade with China, takes the reins of American trade policy.
A strategic choice in the trade war between the United States and China.
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Joe Biden, the president-elect, victim of a broken foot, advances with a sure step towards his inauguration.
The main voters must confirm this Monday, December 14 the victory of the Democrat.
The opportunity for him to present his new team, while Donald Trump, outgoing president, still refuses to admit defeat.
Among the newly elected alongside the next head of the United States, Katherine Tai, a specialist in free trade issues, would take the reins of American trade policy.
She would replace the Republican Robert Lighthize who has occupied her since 2017. If her appointment has been formalized by the future president, it must now be confirmed by the Senate.
Joe Biden, who will officially take office on January 20, began on December 1 to present his economic team.
Originally Taiwanese, this 46-year-old Democrat is well aware of the workings of trade relations with China, which have been damaged by the Trump administration.
By appointing her to this key function of his government, Joe Biden not only continues to place minority women in high positions within the executive, he is equipping himself with a skilled negotiator.
Fine negotiator
Katherine Tai is not her first attempt at trade policy.
Graduated from prestigious Yale and Harvard universities, where she studied history, then law, she defended the United States before the WTO, the World Trade Organization, against China for seven years, under the presidency of Barak Obama.
The first generation born in the United States, the Taiwanese lived in China where she taught English for two years at Sun-Yat-sen University in Guangzhou (Canton), a port city northeast of Hong-Kong.
She is fluent in Mandarin and will be a valuable asset in the trade war that has divided Washington and Beijing for more than two years.
According to her supporters, Katherine Tai "
has expertise that can help the United States confront Beijing on issues such as forced labor and intellectual property rights while preserving an effective trade relationship between the world's two largest economies.
" , notes the Politico website.
The commercial lawyer also rolled her bump in the House of Representatives.
She has had to defend laws in a divided Congress, a challenge she will undoubtedly face under Joe Biden.
A popular woman
Katherine Tai, also contributed to the edifice of the new free trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico, which replaced NAFTA.
The labor and environmental rules she negotiated in the deal could serve as the basis for future trade deals.
Appreciated by elected officials on both sides of the political spectrum, from the business world, like unions, Katherine Tai, wants to defend workers' rights, in terms of minimum wages for example.
For her “
trade is not an end in itself, it is the means to create more hope and opportunities for people
.
She will be able to tackle the task, within the framework of the program of Joe Biden Build Back Better (translate: better rebuild).
This unanimous support could however be weakened when it becomes necessary to tackle thorny issues, those of customs duties for example, imposed by Donald Trump, and on which Joe Biden does not intend to return at first, the confrontation being consensus in the USA.
Democrats, like Republicans, called for a boycott of telecom giants ZTE and Huawei, accused of violating US technology embargoes.
The new team should stand firm on trade while forming a common front with its European allies.
On the European side, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, pleaded for a "
reconnection
" between the United States and the Member States of the EU, with the adoption of a "
new transatlantic agenda
" .
Katherine Tai, if she is confirmed in her new functions by the American Senate, will have a lot to do.
♦ A diverse team but without new faces
With a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, Vice President
Kamala Harris
single
-
handedly
embodies the diversity of the new Democratic team.
A team made up of African Americans like
General Lloyd Austin
, appointed to lead the Pentagon, and which also includes two Latinos.
Among them, the former anti-Trump prosecutor, Xavier Becerra, must head the Ministry of Health.
This is a key position in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
But if Joe Biden's cabinet is undoubtedly the one that displays the greatest diversity in the history of the United States, the objective of the president-elect is above all to reassure Americans.
A practical choice
In fact, almost all the officials have already worked under the presidency of Barack Obama, they have their networks of influence in Washington and will be operational very quickly.
It is a practical choice that comes at the expense of the new generation of Democrats, positioned more to the left.
Relatives of former Democratic nomination contestant Bernie Sanders have not found a place in the cabinet.
For now, their protests remain quiet.
But for how long?
In any case, Joe Biden did not want to take the risk of appointing people who represent a red rag for Republicans.
And who would perhaps be challenged in the Senate which must confirm most positions and whose majority is played in by-elections in Georgia in early January.
♦ For Corentin Sellin, associate professor of history and specialist in the United States, the composition of the Biden administration marks a real continuity with that of Obama.
What is striking is the very great continuity with the Obama administration ...
Corentin Sellin, associate professor of history and specialist in the United States
Romain Lemaresquier
♦ The vote of the large voters is a traditional stage in the American electoral process which does not imply much, but which is a strong symbol, according to Corentin Sellin.
It does not imply anything in particular since, as we recall, it is quite a ritual, a form of ceremonial ...
Corentin Sellin, associate professor of history and specialist in the United States
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