As the world wonders who will be calling the shots in a second Trump administration, one name keeps popping up among possible economic advisors: Robert Lighthizer. As the U.S. trade representative during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term, Lighthizer was the architect of the United States’ aggressive use of tariffs and other trade restrictions against friend and foe alike, abandoning decades of U.S. support for free trade. His trade policy revolution was subsequently embraced and expanded by the Biden administration.
Lighthizer may now be on the short list for a key economic post come January, with treasury secretary mentioned as one possibility. If he gets the nod, he could apply equally revolutionary ideas to policy areas beyond bilateral trade—with enormous implications on the financial sector and on economies around the world, as FP columnist Edward Alden describes in his profile of Lighthizer with a view to a second Trump term.
As the world wonders who will be calling the shots in a second Trump administration, one name keeps popping up among possible economic advisors: Robert Lighthizer. As the U.S. trade representative during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term, Lighthizer was the architect of the United States’ aggressive use of tariffs and other trade restrictions against friend and foe alike, abandoning decades of U.S. support for free trade. His trade policy revolution was subsequently embraced and expanded by the Biden administration.
Lighthizer may now be on the short list for a key economic post come January, with treasury secretary mentioned as one possibility. If he gets the nod, he could apply equally revolutionary ideas to policy areas beyond bilateral trade—with enormous implications on the financial sector and on economies around the world, as FP columnist Edward Alden describes in his profile of Lighthizer with a view to a second Trump term.
But even if a Lighthizer comeback is limited to a trade portfolio, the world could be in store for an economic upheaval. As Bob Davis outlines in his review of Lighthizer’s 2023 book, No Trade Is Free: Changing Course, Taking on China, and Helping America’s Workers, the former trade official favors an economic and technological decoupling from China so comprehensive that it would take the protectionism initiated during Trump’s first term to an entirely new level.
Read it here: The Man Who Would Help Trump Upend the Global Economy and Trump Trade War Mastermind Is Back With a Dangerous New Plan
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The post What to Know About Trump Cabinet Contender Robert Lighthizer appeared first on Foreign Policy.
