Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Understanding the President’s Cabinet: Trade Representative
Understanding the President’s Cabinet: Trade Representative
Apr 4, 2025 12:49 PM

Note: This is the post #19 in a weekly series of explanatory posts on the officials and agencies included in the President’s Cabinet. See the series introductionhere.

Cabinet position:U.S. Trade Representative (USTR)

Department: Office of the United States Trade Representative, which is part of the Executive Office of the President

Current Representative:Robert Lighthizer

Department Mission:“The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) is responsible for developing and coordinating U.S. international modity, and direct investment policy, and overseeing negotiations with other countries.” (Source)

Department Budget:$59,376,000 (FY2017)

Number of employees:248

Primary Duties of the Secretary:Serves as the president’s principal trade advisor, negotiator, and spokesperson on trade issues. The USTR also coordinates trade policy, resolves disagreements, and frames issues for presidential decision. USTR also serves as vice chairman of the Board of Directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), is on the Board of Directors of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, is a non-voting member of the Export-Import Bank Board of Directors, and a member of the National Advisory Council on International Monetary and Financial Policies. (Source)

Ambassador Info

Ambassador: Robert E. Lighthizer (sworn in on May 15, 2017)

Previous occupation:Partner at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP (Skadden) where he practiced international trade law.

Education:Bachelor’s degree at Georgetown University and his Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center.

Previous government experience:Deputy USTR for President Ronald Reagan; Chief of Staff of the United States Senate Committee on Finance for Chairman Bob Dole.

Notable achievements:

Served as treasurer for the Kansas Republican’s presidential campaign in 1996.

Notable quotes:

On trade “fairness”: “On a purely intellectual level, how does allowing China to constantly rig trade in its favor advance the core conservative goal of making markets more efficient? Markets do not run better when manufacturing shifts to China largely because of the actions of its government. Nor do they e more efficient when panies are given special privileges in global markets, while panies must struggle pete with unfairly traded goods.”

On NAFTA: “As a starting point for negotiations, we should build on what has worked in NAFTA and change and improve what has not. If renegotiations result in a fairer deal for American workers there is value in making the transition to a modernized NAFTA as seamless as possible.”

On the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): “The United States pulled out of the TPP and it’s not going to change that decision. That does not mean we will not engage in this region. The president made a decision, that I certainly agree with, that bilateral negotiations are better for the United States than multilateral negotiations.”

Previous and ing posts in this series: Vice President,Secretary of State,Secretary of the Treasury,Secretary of Education, Secretary of Labor,Secretary of Defense, Attorney General,Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Commerce,Secretary of Health and Human Services,Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Secretary of Transportation, Secretary of Energy,Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Secretary of Homeland Security,White House Chief of Staff, U.S. Trade Representative,Director of National Intelligence,Representative of the United States to the United Nations,Director of the Office of Management and Budget,Director of the Central Intelligence Agency,Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency,Administrator of the Small Business Administration

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
The right pass at the right time
If you haven’t heard of this story yet, read about what Notre Dame head football coach Charlie Weis did this past weekend. His expression passion for a dying boy, 10-year-old Montana Mazurkiewicz, transcends sports. Weis honored a promise to Montana despite the fact that he is a first-year coach in the big business of college football, in what might be the most scrutinized and storied programs in the country. In a personal visit to the boy last week, in addition...
The nose of a camel: The federal government and education
Federal involvement in education has grown steadily throughout the nation’s history, encroaching on what is still viewed by American’s as mostly a state and local responsibility. Kevin Schmiesing looks at a new book that examines U.S. education policy, the red tape and bureaucracy that has resulted, and the opposition to federal control that arose from parochial school administrators. Read the full text here. ...
Hurricane relief – Small organizations to the rescue
In the wake of overwhelming need of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, thankfully a number of us are voicing irritation with the inquiry, “How important do you think that faith-based organizations are to helping people”? Before ANY organization — government agency of any kind or national nonprofit — made a move, faith organizations had already moved. In San Antonio, where several Russian students were among New Orleans evacuees, Victory Fellowship, a faith-based, privately funded substance abuse treatment program, simply did the...
Submerged subsidiarity
Because too much has already been said about the recent gulf hurricanes, I won’t put in my two cents. I will, however, direct the reader to the most insightful take on this situation that I have yet to stumble across. As you read it, think again about the importance of the definitions of the words we use, such as ‘responsibility’ and ‘authority’ as are discussed in the mentioned article. ...
Journalism professor calls for Helter Skelter
In 1969 Charles Manson and his gang set out to ignite a race war that pitted the wealthy white establishment against underprivileged blacks. The apocalyptic battle would be called “Helter Skelter,” after the Beatles’ song written by Paul McCartney. The white Manson reasoned that America’s angry black population would eventually win this war; at which time he and his group would emerge from their Mojave Desert hideout to assume leadership over what he perceived to be an inferior race. es...
Breathing with one lung?
Bishop Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Vienna and Austria, the Russian Orthodox Church’s representative to the European Union, is once again urging a Roman Catholic-Orthodox alliance bat secularism, liberalism and relativism in Europe — and lands outside it. “The social and ethical teachings of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches are extremely close, in many cases practically identical,” Bishop Hilarion said. “Why, then, should we not be able to reveal our unity on all these major issues urbi et orbi?” Since the election...
Spendthrift republicans
A wonderful piece by Deroy Murdock today on NRO. Though most fiscal conservatives understandably vote Republican, the record substantiates the theory that spending is less responsible when Congress is dominated by one party—either party—than when each party has enough votes to frustrate the other. Others have drawn attention to the problem of Republican pork, but Murdock does so in an especially devastating way. ...
Fab labbing, Fu-Fu, and the ovine entrepreneur
The BBC reports today a great illustration of human creativity and the intersection of technology and subsidiarity. MIT has set up what they called Fab Labs (Fabrication Labs) in what many might consider the least likely places for technological invention. These Labs consist of basic tools and software than enable people in sometimes remote and rural locations to invent and fabricate the technology they need in their daily work. MIT professor Neil Gershenfeld: In a world of Fab Labs, you...
Questions about the Red Cross
The Remedy, the Claremont Institute‘s blog, links to an article in the Los Angeles Times by Richard M. Walden, head of Operation USA, that raises concerns about how the Red Cross spends the money it receives for specific disasters. Walden levels some important and serious charges against the Red Cross, and may or may not be convincing depending on if you approve of the Red Cross’ fund-raising precedents and other activities. But Walden is undeniably right is when he raises...
CAFTA, prudence, and volleyball
After receiving some responses to a previous post (CAFTA/Culture of Life: Enemies?), I thought I would post the the exchange with my most recent dissatisfied critic. Here’s to volleying! (I have edited the emails for confidentiality.) Mr. Phelps, It was with great interest that I recently read your blog entry “CAFTA/Culture of Life: Enemies?” as for some strange reason it recently appeared on the Google Alerts. I found it amusing how you worked John Paul’s teachings in without actually quoting...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved