On March 17th, 2021, Katherine Tai, President Biden’s nominee as Trade Representative, was confirmed in the Senate by a unanimous vote of 98-0 making her the first Asian American and woman of color U.S. Trade Representative (Swanson).
Tai’s parents were China-born residents of Taiwan who immigrated to the United States in the 1960s (Rascoe). Born in Connecticut, Tai grew up in Washington D.C. where she attended Sidwell Friends, a Quaker school in Bethesda, Maryland (Bade). Tai earned her bachelor’s degree from Yale and received her Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School thereafter (Dorf-Kamienny). In the late 1990’s, she taught at Zhongshan University in Guangzhou China as a Yale-China fellow and later worked for numerous law firms and even clerked for the District Courts in D.C. and Maryland (Bade).
In 2007, Tai joined the United States’ Trade Representative (USTR) – the organization she now leads. As the chief counsel for China trade enforcement, Tai monitored disputes between the U.S. and China at the World Trade Organization (Bade). In 2014, she served in the House Ways and Means committee. As a lawyer on the International and domestic stage, she gained a reputation as a level-headed negotiation machine and the title “trade czar” (Lawder and Shalal). House Democrats told Biden Tai was “uniquely able to negotiate and advance priorities with both friendly and hostile negotiating partners” (Lawder and Shalal).
In the House committee, Tai was an essential player in negotiating Trump’s United States Mexico Canada (USMCA) trade deal. According to Senator Sherrod Brown, Tai played a “critical role in securing real improvements for workers” in the new agreement (Lawder and Shalal). In her confirmation hearing, Tai reiterated her trade policy as “worker-focused” (Swanson). In fact, after her nomination announcement, she received incredible support from numerous labor and business groups. According to POLITICO, “A group of more than 100 food and agricultural firms and associations urged the Senate to confirm her in a letter touting her ‘demonstrated ability to build bipartisan support for trade policies’” (Bade).
Tai’s support from business and labor and across the political spectrum is substantial in an era of polarizing politics. Clete Willems, a former top trade official in the Trump White House said of Tai, “Everyone loves her because she’s just – she’s a great person, and she’s just a great combination of substance, you know, political acumen and personality” (Rascoe). Her tough on China policies are praised throughout Washington.
Unlike the agenda of the former administration, Tai is prepared to take an offensive approach towards China, shifting away from a trade war towards a more proactive approach. Said Tai, “make ourselves and our workers and our industries and our allies faster, nimbler, able to jump higher and able to compete stronger” (Lawder and Shalal). Her new tough-on-China and pro-American–worker approach is something a swathe of American lawmakers and policy professionals can agree on, not to mention the American public.
As Asian-American hate crimes has increased over the past year and in the wake of the Atlanta shooting, I felt it only necessary to bring to light the success of Katherine Tai. It is essential we spotlight the incredible and diverse women whose names often go overlooked but can be powerful forces in American domestic and foreign policy.
Sources
Bade, Gavin. “At USTR, a Straight-Shooter Will Have to Navigate Biden’s Old Guard in Washington.” POLITICO, POLITICO, 1 Feb. 2021, www.politico.com/news/2021/02/01/katherine-tai-ustr-biden-463668.
Dorf-Kamienny, Sophie. “Katherine Tai Appointed as U.S. Trade Rep.: ‘I Am Very Proud to Be an Advocate For American Workers.’” Feminist Majority Foundation, Feminist Majority Foundation, 24 Dec. 2020, feminist.org/news/katherine-tai-appointed-as-u-s-trade-rep-i-am-very-proud-to-be-an-advocate-for-american-workers/.
Lawder, David, and Andrea Shalal. “Lawyer Katherine Tai a Congress Favorite for Biden Trade Czar.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 25 Nov. 2020, www.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-biden-trade-idUKKBN285285.
Rascoe, Ayesha. “Who Is Katherine Tai, Biden’s Pick For U.S. Trade Representative?” NPR, NPR, 29 Dec. 2020, www.npr.org/2020/12/29/951208082/who-is-katherine-tai-bidens-pick-for-u-s-trade-representative.
Swanson, Ana. “Katherine Tai Is Confirmed as U.S. Trade Representative.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 17 Mar. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/us/katherine-tai-trade-confirmed.html.
I think its very cool that Katherine Tai is praised both for her personality and her political abilities. I am not too educated about international trade and what is going on in China but it seems like she will be putting some real work into addressing the situation. I think it is good that you spotlighted Tao in wake of all of the Asian hate that is occurring.
Her story is very inspiring and I am happy and proud of her for being voted in unanimously.
As I have read your blogs these past few weeks, I am truly impressed by the Biden administrations’ steps toward inclusivity via gender and race! Tai’s education and prior jobs definitely make her an ample choice for Trade Rep. I am curious to see how the Chinese trade issues play out, and what Tai accomplishes these next few years!