WASHINGTON - President Biden appointee Katherine Tai has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate in a 98-0 vote as the new U.S. Trade Representative. Tai succeeds Trump appointee Robert Lighthizer.

 

Tai is known to be a critic of China's trade practices. Previously serving as the USTR's chief counsel for China trade enforcement, she successfully argued the U.S. case against China's trade practices several times before the World Trade Organization.

 

Tai, whose parents were born in mainland China. will become the first Asian American woman to hold the position. She is fluent in Mandarin.

 

CNBC and other sources expect the Biden Administration to maintain a tough stance against China, but "move away from the Trump Administration's more belligerant tone."

 

It's unclear whether the USTR will implement more tariffs against China under Tai. But she did testifiy before the Senate Finance Committee last month declaring she wished to hold China to its phase one committments. 

 

The growing Vietnam dispute will also have to be addressed. 

 

In January, the USTR determined that Vietnam's trade actions, policies, and practices related to currency devaluation are harming U.S. commerce.

 

"The findings in this investigation support that Vietnam’s acts, policies, and practices with respect to currency valuation, including excessive foreign exchange market interventions and other related actions, taken in their totality, are unreasonable and burden or restrict U.S. commerce, and are thus actionable under section 301 of the Trade Act," the USTR wrote in a report.