United States President-elect Donald Trump has not asked former Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to return to that agency that oversees trade policy in his new administration, contrary to a report from the Financial Times (FT), two sources familiar with the matter said.
He FT reported earlier that Lighthizer had been asked to direct Trump’s trade policy from the Office of the Trade Representative (USTR), citing unnamed people familiar with conversations among the former president’s transition team.
One of the two sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, called the report “false.”
Lighthizer declined to comment on the report or on deliberations within the Republican’s transition team regarding Cabinet positions. The veteran Washington trade lawyer advised Trump’s 2024 campaign.
Lighthizer was one of the leading figures during Trump’s first term in imposing heavy tariffs on Chinese imports and renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada.
He has frequently been mentioned in Republican circles as a possible candidate for other Cabinet posts, such as Treasury Secretary and Commerce Secretary.
Trump’s transition team did not respond to a request for comment. On Thursday, the president-elect announced that he had chosen Susie Wiles, one of his two campaign managers, as White House chief of staff.
Trump intends to push forward the aggressive trade agenda of his first four-year term with widespread 10 percent tariffs on imported goods and even higher levies on imports from China and other countries. If enacted, they would raise consumer prices.
China’s top envoy to the United States warned Thursday that there are no winners in tariff or trade wars, nor in wars over science and technology or industry.
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