Wyden Praises Tai, Criticizes Trump Tariff Approach
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the U.S. trade representative nominee has “really extraordinary skill in bringing people together,” and that it's critical to confirm her, deputy Treasury secretary nominee Wally Adeyemo, and the Health and Human Services secretary, so they can get to work. Wyden, who spoke with reporters Feb. 22, didn't spend much time on trade issues, but he said he thinks Katherine Tai is “going to do a first-rate job” heading the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
“We are all prepared to be tough on China,” he said, but said it's time to focus on opening markets to help the domestic middle class. “All I can tell you is, when [President Donald] Trump was done, the markets [in China] were more closed than when he began.” Wyden called the Trump trade policy “a vending machine approach,” adding: “Put 50 cents into a vending machine, and the same product came out again and again, and it was just another tariff.”