U.S. President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced a new batch of key members of his administration on Thursday, including Katherine Tai to serve as the United States Trade Representative.
Other members of the Biden administration announced on Thursday include Secretary Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture; Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; Denis McDonough, Secretary of Veterans Affairs; and Ambassador Susan Rice, Director of the Domestic Policy Council.
“Katherine Tai is a dedicated, deeply respected public servant and veteran international trade expert who has spent her career working to level the playing field for American workers and families,” the Biden transition team said in a statement.
Currently, Tai serves as the chief lawyer on trade to the Chairman and Democratic Members of the Committee on Ways and Means on matters of international trade as Chief Trade Counsel.
“In this role, she has secured key victories for workers in U.S. trade policy and has been praised by lawmakers and lawyers for her work,” the Biden team said.
Prior to the Committee, Tai served in the USTR’s Office of the General Counsel, first as Associate General Counsel from 2007 to 2011 and then as Chief Counsel for China Trade Enforcement with responsibility for the development and litigation of U.S. disputes against China at the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Before joining USTR, Tai worked in the international trade departments in various Washington, D.C. law firms. From 1996 to 1998, she lived and worked in Guangzhou, China teaching English at Sun Yat-Sen University as a Yale-China Fellow. Tai was born in Connecticut — the first American-born citizen in her family — and raised in the Washington, D.C. area. She is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School.
Simon Ateba is Chief White House Correspondent for Today News Africa. Simon covers President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, the U.S. government, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other financial and international institutions in Washington D.C. and New York City.