- Transition « Building
the New Administration « Press Release from Trump for
America, Inc.
For Immediate Release
January 3, 2017
President-Elect Donald J. Trump Nominates Robert Lighthizer as United States Trade Representative
(New
York,
NY) – President-elect Donald J. Trump today announced that he
intends to nominate Robert Lighthizer as U.S. Trade
Representative.
Ambassador Lighthizer served under President Ronald Reagan as
Deputy
United States Trade Representative, playing a major role in developing
trade policy for the Reagan Administration and negotiating roughly two
dozen bilateral international agreements on a variety of topics from
steel to grain. These agreements were uniformly tough and frequently
resulted in significant reductions in the shipment of unfairly traded
imports into the United States.
In his new role, Ambassador Lighthizer will work in close
coordination
with Secretary of Commerce-designate Wilbur Ross and Peter
Navarro,
head of the newly created White House National Trade
Council, to develop and implement policies that shrink
our trade
deficit, expand economic growth, strengthen our manufacturing
base and
help stop the exodus of jobs from our shores.
“Ambassador Lighthizer is going to do an outstanding job
representing
the United States as we fight for good trade deals that put the
American worker first,” said President-elect Donald J. Trump. “He
has extensive experience striking agreements that protect
some of the
most important sectors of our economy, and has repeatedly fought
in the
private sector to prevent bad deals from hurting Americans. He will do
an amazing job helping turn around the failed trade policies which have
robbed so many Americans of prosperity.”
“It is a very high honor to represent our nation and to serve in
President-elect Trump’s administration as the U.S. Trade
Representative,” said Ambassador Robert Lighthizer. “I am
fully
committed to President-elect Trump’s mission to level the playing field
for American workers and forge better trade policies which will benefit
all Americans.”
Ambassador Lighthizer has long been a leader in U.S. trade
policy, and
has extensive experience in the legislative branch,
the executive
branch, and the private sector. Aside from his service in the Reagan
Administration, he was Chief of Staff of the United States Senate
Committee of Finance when Congress passed the Reagan program of tax
cuts and spending reductions, and also aided in the passage of
legislation which implemented the Tokyo Round of trade
negotiations.
He has also represented the United States at meetings of the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and meetings
related to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (the precursor to
the World Trade Organization).
Ambassador Lighthizer headed up the international trade law
practice at
Skadden, Arps Slate, Meagher and Flom for over three decades. He has
represented American manufacturers in many of the largest and most
significant trade cases of the last 25 years, such as the steel
safeguard case of the early 2000s – the last time any president
granted
global safeguard relief. He has worked on scores of successful cases
that resulted in reducing unfair imports and helping thousands of
American workers and numerous businesses.
Ambassador Lighthizer has also been an outspoken commentator
on trade issues, giving speeches and writing articles for the New
York Times and
other publications, as well as providing testimony to key Congressional
committees, the U.S. China Economic and Security Review
Commission, and
other government agencies with responsibility for trade policy. He
graduated from Georgetown University and the Georgetown University
Law
Center.