Robert Lighthizer, who implemented then-US president and now president-elect Donald Trump’s trade war against China more than six years ago, has been tapped to reprise his role as US Trade Representative in Trump’s incoming administration, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the situation.
A strong proponent of tariffs as an effective tool to fight foreign subsidies and bolster American companies, Lighthizer has been one of the most frequent names to emerge in speculation over who Trump will pick for key economic cabinet positions. He was also seen as a possible candidate for commerce secretary.
He has been active in the tariffs debate in the years since leaving his post at the end of Trump’s first term, and never fully left the president-elect’s orbit as some other cabinet officials have.
Lighthizer is currently the chair of the Centre for American Trade at the America First Policy Institute, a think tank that draws on many Trump loyalists and insiders for recommendations on the transition to a second Trump administration, although the organisation was not an official arm of the president-elect’s campaign.
Last year, the former top trade negotiator published a book titled No Trade is Free, in which he argued for an escalation of the trade conflicts and tariff wars that characterised the Trump years.
The book advocates for “strategic decoupling” from China, suggesting a bigger break with the world’s second-largest economy compared with the “de-risking” measures pushed by US President Joe Biden. The goal, he said, should be the elimination of trade deficit with China by repealing its normal trade status, in addition to more tariffs.