Lighthizer A “Forceful Personality”

Earlier this week, Donald Trump tapped Robert Lighthizer as his selection for US Trade Representative.  Lighthizer served as a deputy trade representative in the Reagan years and went on to lobby for U.S. steel firms, pressing for punitive measures against foreign steel.

Former USDA trade chief in the Clinton Administration, Paul Drazek, says Lighthizer is viewed as a “forceful” personality and one who could centralize the trade function at USTR that Trump’s other appointments to Commerce and a new trade council could compliment.

"Maybe there’s a chance USTR will be able to continue to play a central role, and maybe the central role, in determining U.S. trade policy.”

Drazek agrees with going after unfair trade, but beyond that, he argues the result for ag and other sectors could be costly.

“That’s when it gets ominous, because then other countries can do that to us, and we don’t unfairly export our agriculture products, so if people start to decide to protect their domestic industries for the sake of production, that would be devastating to agriculture.”

Trump has threatened to heavily tax imports from China and Mexico, two nations that US agriculture relies heavily on for markets.  Trump has also threatened to rip up NAFTA, which has largely helped agriculture.

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