President-elect Donald Trump selected Jamieson Greer Tuesday to serve as the US trade representative in his incoming administration.
“Jamieson played a key role during my First Term in imposing Tariffs on China and others to combat unfair Trade practices, and replacing the failed NAFTA deal with USMCA, therefore making it much better for American Workers,” the president-elect wrote in his announcement.
Trump, 78, tapped Greer a day after he announced plans to sign executive orders that would impose sweeping tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China in an effort to stamp out illegal immigration and drug smuggling.
Greer served as chief of staff to USTR Robert Lighthizer during Trump’s first term in the White House.
“His efforts under the former USTR, Bob Lighthizer, a spectacular leader and person, helped spur the return of Manufacturing jobs to America, and reverse decades of disastrous Trade policies,” Trump continued.
“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,” he added.
Greer, a native of Paradise, Calif., is currently a partner at the King & Spalding law firm, where he focuses on international trade issues.
He also served in the US Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps, including a deployment to Iraq, where he worked as both a prosecutor and defense counsel in criminal investigations and courts-martial involving US airmen, according to his King & Spalding bio.
On Monday, Trump outlined his plan to impose 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada – and a 10% duty on Chinese goods – until illicit fentanyl and illegal migrants “stop” coming through the northern and southern US borders.
The pledge followed Trump’s campaign proposal to impose blanket tariffs of 10% to 20% on virtually all imports.
On the campaign trail, the president-elect also floated slapping tariffs higher than 200% on Mexican-made automobiles, explaining that many of the manufacturing plants south of the border are actually owned or backed by China.
Greer’s views on tariffs appear strongly aligned with Trump’s.
He argued in support of “increased tariff usage” and stronger export controls to safeguard US technologies during testimony in May before the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, according to Reuters.
“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.
