President-elect Donald J. Trump on Tuesday picked Jamieson Greer, a lawyer and former Trump official, to serve as his top trade negotiator. The position will be crucial to Mr. Trump’s plans of issuing hefty tariffs on foreign products and rewriting the rules of trade in America’s favor.
Mr. Greer is a partner in international trade at the law firm King & Spalding. During Mr. Trump’s first term, Mr. Greer served as chief of staff to Robert E. Lighthizer, the trade representative at the time. He was involved in the Trump administration’s trade negotiations with China, as well as the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.
Before that, Mr. Greer served in the Air Force, where he was a lawyer who prosecuted and defended U.S. airmen in criminal investigations. He was deployed to Iraq.
The position of trade representative has historically been fairly low profile, but it has taken on greater importance under Mr. Trump. In his first term, the office helped wage a trade war against China, imposed substantial tariffs on its products and negotiated a series of trade deals.
In his next term, Mr. Trump has promised to again make aggressive use of the government’s authority over trade. On Monday, he said he would impose tariffs on all products coming into the United States from Canada, Mexico and China on his first day in office.
In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump said he would use an executive order to levy a 25 percent tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico until drugs and migrants stopped coming over the border. In a separate post, he threatened an additional 10 percent tariff on all products from China, saying that the country was shipping illegal drugs to the United States.
Mr. Trump could be using the threats as an opening wager in negotiations. But they have threatened to sow chaos in America’s diplomatic and economic relationships, and if enacted, the tariffs would cripple trade, scramble global supply chains and impose heavy costs on American businesses including auto manufacturers, farmers and food packagers.
The U.S. trade representative, a cabinet-level official who carries the rank of ambassador, is charged with carrying out trade negotiations and resolving economic disputes with other countries, as well as working with lawmakers, farmers and business owners to shape trade policy. The representative leads a small agency of more than 200 people that has offices in Washington, Geneva and Brussels.
In addition to carrying out Mr. Trump’s tariff plans, the office is also likely to play an important role in negotiating trade terms with Canada and Mexico. In 2026, the countries are set to revisit the terms of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the trade pact Mr. Trump renegotiated in his first term to replace the NAFTA.
It remains to be seen how exactly Mr. Trump will organize the trade policy posts in his administration. In a post on Truth Social last Tuesday, Mr. Trump said that Howard Lutnick, his selection for commerce secretary, would “lead our tariff and trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative.”
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