Former Reagan administration deputy U.S. trade representative and longtime trade-remedies attorney, Robert Lighthizer, is President-elect Trump’s choice for United States Trade Representative. Considered in conjunction with the appointments of Peter Navarro to head the newly-created National Trade Council at the White House (my take) and Wilbur Ross at the Commerce Department (my take), Lighthizer’s selection seems to confirm fears that U.S. trade policy is descending into darkness. At the very least, it is reasonable to assume that for the foreseeable future trade policy will be overwhelmingly enforcement-oriented, while trade agreements and other forms of liberalization will be relegated to the doghouse.
For many years, Lighthizer has represented U.S. steel companies, America’s most trade-litigious industry, filing dozens of antidumping and countervailing duty petitions to keep foreign steel out of the United States. Some of the cases in which he was involved were brought before WTO dispute settlement, where the panels and Appellate Body ruled that the United States was administering its antidumping law in ways that violated U.S. commitments under the WTO Antidumping Agreement.
Perhaps, as a result of those experiences, Lighthizer has been a strident critic of the WTO’s dispute settlement body, which he accuses of overreach and usurpation of U.S. sovereignty. (Here is a debate from 10 years ago between Lighthizer and me on the merits of the WTO.) The fact is that there may be somewhat of a pro-complainant “bias” at the WTO because governments don’t bring cases to dispute settlement unless they are reasonably certain of victory. There is a selection bias. When the United States is the complainant, it wins most of the issues in most of the cases. When the United States is the defendant, it loses most of the issues in most of the cases. It just so happens that the United States has had to defend its indefensible antidumping regime many times at the WTO, and in most cases it has lost. Antidumping litigation is Lighthizer’s bread and butter.