Senate Finance Committee approves Jamieson Greer, Trump’s choice to be top U.S. trade negotiator

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Finance Committee approved President Donald Trump’s choice to be America’s top trade negotiator Wednesday, largely along party lines.

Jamieson Greer, an attorney and trade official in Trump’s first term, was cleared by the panel 15-12. All Republicans on the committee but just one Democrat – Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island – voted in favor of Greer, whose nomination to be U.S. trade representative will now go to the full Senate.

Greer would oversee Trump’s trade policy along with the president’s nominee to run the Commerce Department, wealthy financier Howard Lutnick.

The vote comes as Trump wages trade war against much of the world. The president has already slapped a 25% tax on Chinese imports. A 25% tariff on foreign steel and aluminum is scheduled to kick in on March 12. Trump is also preparing to raise American tariffs to match those charged by other countries on U.S. exports.

Economists warn that Trump’s tariffs will raise prices and risk rekindling inflation – while drawing retaliation from other countries. Trump says they will raise revenue, protect U.S. industries and pressure other countries to make concessions on issues both related and unrelated to trade.

Greer, a former Air Force lawyer, was chief of staff to Trump’s first-term trade representative, Robert Lighthizer. In that position, Greer was involved in trade talks with China at a time when the world’s two biggest economies were hitting each other’s products with tariffs in the biggest trade brawl since the 1930s.

He also helped negotiate a revamped North American trade pact, the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and worked with Democrats to get it approved by Congress.

But most finance committee Democrats, critical of Trump’s belligerent and unpredictable approach to trade, were unwilling to support Greer.

The president was prepared on Feb. 4 to hit Mexico and Canada with across-the-board tariffs that would have disrupted hundreds of billions of dollars in annual North American trade. But he backed off at the last minute — delaying the tariffs for 30 days — when those countries made modest commitments to do more to reduce the flow of undocumented immigrants and illegal drugs across the U.S. border.

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the committee’s top Democrat, on Tuesday criticized Trump’s trade policies as a “swampy mess.’’ Greer, he said, is just “going to be a rubber stamp for Trump trade chaos.’’