WASHINGTON (AP) — Robert Lighthizer has long complained that the United States dithered in the face of abusive Chinese trade policies, allowing its trade gap with Beijing to explode and American factories to close.
Now, the veteran trade lawyer may have a chance to do something about it.
As President Donald Trump’s choice to be U.S. trade representative, the 69-year-old Lighthizer would be empowered to renegotiate and enforce trade deals, many of which the new president has condemned as destroyers of American jobs. On Thursday, the Senate Finance Committee postponed a vote on Lighthizer’s nomination because two members from Ohio, Republican Rob Portman and Democrat Sherrod Brown, were attending a memorial service at Arlington National Cemetery for the late Ohio Democratic Sen. John Glenn.
(His confirmation has been held up by a political dispute over whether he needs a congressional waiver because he has worked for foreign companies. The delay means Lighthizer isn’t in his job as Trump prepares to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.)
