Jamieson Greer is Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. trade rep in coming administration
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday chose trade lawyer Jamieson Greer as his new U.S. trade representative, elevating a key veteran of his first-term trade war against China to execute a sweeping tariff agenda that promises to upend global trade.
“Jamieson will focus the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on reining in the Country’s massive Trade Deficit, defending American Manufacturing, Agriculture, and Services, and opening up Export Markets everywhere,” Trump said in a statement.
Greer, 44, served as chief of staff to Trump’s former U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer, the architect of Trump’s original tariffs on some $370 billion US worth of Chinese imports and the renegotiation of the North American free trade deal with Canada and Mexico.
In this role, Greer participated with Lighthizer in all negotiations with Chinese officials through the signing of a “Phase 1” trade deal with Beijing in January 2020. Under that agreement, China pledged to buy some $200 billion US worth of U.S. goods over two years, a goal never achieved, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Greer, who previously worked with Lighthizer at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, on steel trade remedy cases, left the U.S. Trade Representative in May 2020 to join the King & Spalding law firm in Washington, D.C. There, he has represented clients including domestic manufacturers in trade remedy cases, export and import compliance and investment security matters.
Tariff threats from Trump
Trump got off to an early start on specific tariff plans, vowing on Monday to impose duties of 25 per cent on imports from Mexico and Canada and 10 per cent on Chinese goods unless they halt flows of the deadly opioid fentanyl and illegal migrants into the U.S. The threat has drawn warnings of retaliation.
That threat comes on top of Trump’s vow to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on Chinese imports and 10 per cent to 20 per cent on all goods from elsewhere.
Greer’s views on China and the need for strong actions needed to counter its state-driven efforts to dominate global industries and protect U.S. jobs and industries, are firmly aligned with both Trump and Lighthizer.
During testimony in May before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Greer argued in favour of “increased tariff usage” to level the trade playing field between the U.S. and China, along with stronger export controls to safeguard sensitive U.S. technologies.
He applauded U.S. President Joe Biden’s steep tariff increases on Chinese imports to shield strategic industries such as electric vehicles, batteries and semiconductors, but said stronger action was needed.
“I’m gravely concerned not only with Chinese efforts to dominate global markets and some of the most important technologies and advanced manufactured goods, but also with the Chinese government’s use of trade investment to support its state owned enterprises, its military, and then to drive an economy that appears to be gearing up for conflict with the United States and others,” Greer said.
He said during a February trade forum that his clients have been seeking to diversify their supply chains away from China, partly a result of the tariffs imposed on Chinese imports during Trump’s first term.
Bloomberg News had reported earlier Tuesday that Trump would pick Greer for the role as trade representative.
The 78-year-old Trump returns to the Oval Office in January after having spent four years out of power. He’s the second ever U.S. presidential candidate to win the White House on non-consecutive occasions.
Published at Wed, 27 Nov 2024 01:57:23 +0000
Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal will take effect at 4 a.m. local time Wednesday, Biden says
A ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed group Hezbollah will take effect on Wednesday after both sides accepted an agreement brokered by the United States and France, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday.
The accord clears the way for an end to a conflict across the Israeli-Lebanese border that has killed thousands of people since it was ignited by the Gaza war last year. It’s meant to be a permanent cessation of hostilities, Biden said.
Biden, who gave remarks at the White House shortly after Israel’s security cabinet approved the agreement in a 10-1 vote, said he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati. Fighting would end at 4 a.m. local time on Wednesday (9 p.m. ET on Tuesday), Biden said.
“What is left of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations will not be allowed to threaten the security of Israel again,” he said.
Israel will gradually withdraw its forces over a period of 60 days as Lebanon’s army takes control of territory near its border with Israel to ensure that Hezbollah does not rebuild its infrastructure there, Biden said.
“Civilians on both sides will soon be able to safely return to their communities.”
French President Emmanuel Macron cheered the signing of the deal on social-media platform X, saying it was “the culmination of efforts undertaken for many months with the Israeli and Lebanese authorities, in close collaboration with the United States.”
Lebanon’s Mikati issued a statement welcoming the deal. Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib earlier said the Lebanese army would be ready to have at least 5,000 troops deployed in southern Lebanon as Israeli troops withdraw.
Netanyahu said he was ready to implement a ceasefire deal and would respond forcefully to any violation by Hezbollah.
Netanyahu, who faces some opposition to the deal from within his coalition government, said the ceasefire would allow Israel to focus on the threat from Iran, replenish depleted arms supplies and give the army a rest. It would also serve to isolate Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that triggered war in the region when it led an attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
“We will enforce the agreement and respond forcefully to any violation. Together, we will continue until victory,” Netanyahu said.
“In full co-ordination with the United States, we retain complete military freedom of action. Should Hezbollah violate the agreement or attempt to rearm, we will strike decisively.”
Netanyahu said Hezbollah, which is allied to Palestinian militant group Hamas, was considerably weaker than it had been at the start of the conflict.
“We have set it back decades, eliminated … its top leaders, destroyed most of its rockets and missiles, neutralized thousands of fighters, and obliterated years of terror infrastructure near our border,” he said.
In a statement, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the ceasefire was “a much-needed step toward stability and security in the region.” And he thanked France and the U.S. for their work in making it happen.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN’s special co-ordinator for Lebanon, welcomed the ceasefire deal in a statement, commending the parties to the agreement.
“Now is the time to deliver, through concrete actions, to consolidate today’s achievement.”
A senior U.S. official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. and France would join a mechanism with the UNIFIL peacekeeping force that would work with Lebanon’s army to deter potential violations of the ceasefire. U.S. combat forces would not be deployed, the official said.
The Lebanon ceasefire came after a change of attitudes on both sides in late October, the official said.
After months of escalating violence, a ceasefire deal in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah is reportedly ‘very close.’ Israel’s war cabinet is believed to be preparing to vote on the terms of the deal.
Biden, who leaves office in January, said his administration would continue to push for a ceasefire and hostage-release deal in Gaza, where Israel is battling Hamas, as well as for a deal to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Airstrikes in Beirut
Despite the diplomatic breakthrough, hostilities raged as Israel dramatically ramped up its campaign of airstrikes in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon, with health authorities reporting at least 18 killed. Another airstrike shook Beirut shortly after the ceasefire was announced.
The Israeli military said it struck “components of Hezbollah’s financial management and systems” including a money-exchange office.
Israel issued more evacuation warnings late on Tuesday, just hours before the ceasefire was due to take effect.
Hezbollah also kept up rocket fire into Israel.
Israel’s air force intercepted three launches from Lebanese territory, the military said, in an extensive missile barrage on Tuesday night that led to warning alarms in approximately 115 settlements.
Alia Ibrahim, a mother of twin girls from the southern village of Qaaqaiyat al-Snawbar, who had fled nearly three months ago to Beirut, said she hoped Israeli officials would be faithful to the deal.
“Our village — they destroyed half of it. In these few seconds before they announced the ceasefire, they destroyed half our village,” she said. “God willing, we can go back to our homes and our land.”
Opponents to the deal in Israel include opposition leaders and heads of towns near Israel’s border with Lebanon, who want a depopulated buffer zone on Lebanon’s side of the frontier.
Both the Lebanese government and Hezbollah have insisted that a return of displaced civilians to southern Lebanon is a key tenet of the truce.
Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a right-wing member of Netanyahu’s government, said on social media platform X the agreement does not ensure the return of Israelis to their homes in the country’s north and that the Lebanese army does not have the ability to overcome Hezbollah.
“In order to leave Lebanon, we must have our own security belt,” Ben-Gvir said.
More than 3,760 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon in the past 13 months, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The bombardment has driven 1.2 million people from their homes.
Hezbollah began attacking Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, a day after Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, in support of the Palestinian militant group. That has set off more than a year of fighting and escalated into an all-out war in September, with massive Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon and an Israeli ground invasion of the country’s south.
Published at Tue, 17 Sep 2024 18:38:40 +0000
