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    Taiwan and U.S. to Begin Formal Trade Talks

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    The Biden administration said on Wednesday that it would begin formal trade negotiations with Taiwan this fall, after several weeks of rising tensions over the island democracy that China claims as its own.The announcement marks a step toward a pact that would deepen economic and technological ties between the United States and Taiwan, after initial talks were announced in June. But relations between the United States and China have markedly deteriorated since then, on the heels of visits by two delegations of U.S. lawmakers to Taiwan this month, including by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.The trips angered the Chinese government, which sees the island as an incontestable part of its territory, and it has responded by ramping up military drills and firing missiles into the waters around Taiwan. The United States, in turn, has accused China of using the visits as a pretext to step up operations to intimidate Taiwan, and has vowed to maintain its own military operations in the region.Despite its small size, Taiwan is the United States’ eighth-largest trading partner. It is an important market for U.S. agriculture and a key supplier of technology, particularly advanced semiconductors.Talks for the pact, called the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade, will focus on 11 trade areas, the announcement from the Office of the United States Trade Representative said, including expanding trade in agriculture and digital industries, raising labor and environmental standards, and enhancing trade between small and medium-size businesses.The governments also said they would combat market distortions caused by state-owned enterprises, as well as nonmarket policies and practices — an apparent nod at China, where such practices are common.China responded to the news of the trade talks with displeasure. Shu Jueting, a representative for China’s Ministry of Commerce, said: “China always opposes any form of official exchanges between any country and the Taiwan region of China, including negotiating and signing any agreements with sovereign connotations or an official nature.”She added that China would “take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard sovereignty, security and development interests.”The U.S.-Taiwan trade initiative will be negotiated by the American Institute in Taiwan, which is the unofficial U.S. embassy in Taipei, and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States, which represents Taiwan in Washington in the absence of diplomatic recognition.The Biden administration is also carrying out a separate trade negotiation with 13 Asian nations to form a pact known as the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. Taiwan has expressed interest in joining those talks, but given its contested status, it has not been invited to participate.In a briefing on Wednesday, Daniel J. Kritenbrink, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, defended what he called “an ambitious road map for trade negotiations” with Taiwan.“We will continue to fulfill our commitments under the Taiwan Relations Act,” he said. “That includes supporting Taiwan’s self-defense and maintaining our own capacity to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize Taiwan’s security. And we will continue, consistent with our ‘one China’ policy, to deepen our ties with Taiwan, including through continuing to advance our economic and trade relations.”Austin Ramzy More

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    Biden Administration Says China Failed Trade Commitments

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    In a new report, the administration detailed China’s violations of promises made both to the World Trade Organization and under a 2020 trade deal with the U.S.WASHINGTON — The Biden administration criticized China in a new report released Wednesday morning for failing to uphold a wide range of trade commitments, including promises it had made when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 and others in a trade deal signed with the Trump administration in 2020.In its annual assessment of China’s compliance with its obligations to the W.T.O., the Office of the United States Trade Representative excoriated the Chinese government for flouting the global trade body’s rules and its transparent, market-oriented approach. Instead, China expanded its state-led approach to its economy and trade, causing serious harm to workers and businesses around the world, particularly in industries targeted by its industrial plans, Katherine Tai, the U.S. trade representative, said in a statement.“China has not moved to embrace the market-oriented principles on which the W.T.O. and its rules are based, despite the representations that it made when it joined 20 years ago,” Ms. Tai said.Katherine Tai, the United States trade representative, accused China of failing to embrace the market-oriented principles of the World Trade Organization, which it joined in 2001.Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe report also criticized the trade deal signed by the Trump administration, in one of the first written assessments the Biden administration has provided of China’s progress toward the terms set out in that deal.The Biden administration has said it intends to hold China to the terms of that agreement, while also calling for a different approach to trade. But it has not clarified just how assertively it would enforce a deal it has described as fundamentally flawed.The report said that the deal had failed to address the most fundamental concerns the United States has with China’s approach to trade, and that the United States had serious concerns with China’s implementation of several of its commitments. Those included pledges to purchase U.S. goods and services, as well as promised reforms related to agriculture, particularly biotechnology, and an assessment China promised to conduct on the use in swine and cattle of ractopamine, a feed additive widely used in the United States that Beijing has banned.The United States has raised concerns about China’s progress during regular meetings between officials at various levels of government, the report said.Data released this month showed that China fell far short of satisfying commitments it had made in the trade deal signed with the Trump administration to purchase an additional $200 billion of goods and services by the end of last year. The Biden administration said its patience with China was wearing thin, but it has not yet clarified what action, if any, it would take in response.The report echoed many of the criticisms of China issued under the prior administration, including spelling out the World Trade Organization’s shortcomings in disciplining China’s trade violations and calling for measures to take on China outside the organization.But the report also appeared to take issue with the Trump administration’s attempt to decouple from China, arguing that the United States needed to invest in American workers and infrastructure to compete with China in an integrated global economy.“We cannot build a wall between the United States and China and assume that it will address the problems posed by China,” the report said.Beyond efforts at the World Trade Organization, the United States was pursuing several strategies to hold China to account, the report said. They included bilateral dialogues with China, including over its progress toward the commitments of the 2020 trade deal; cooperation with allies like Japan and Europe; and efforts to repurpose and expand domestic trade tools, like using tariffs to encourage companies to reduce their carbon emissions.“It is also apparent that existing trade tools need to be strengthened, and new trade tools need to be forged,” the report said. “China pursues unfair policies and practices that were not contemplated when many of the U.S. trade statutes were drafted decades ago, and we are therefore exploring ways in which to update our trade tools to counter them.” More

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    U.S. asks Mexico to review a second complaint about labor violations in its auto industry.

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    The Biden administration is invoking provisions in a new trade agreement to ask Mexico to look into accusations of labor violations at an auto-parts plant near the U.S. border.The action, announced Wednesday by the Labor Department and the Office of the United States Trade Representative, follows a complaint by groups including the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the nation’s largest federation of unions, that workers were being denied the rights of free association and collective bargaining.The A.F.L.-C.I.O. said workers at the Tridonex plant in Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, had been harassed and fired over their efforts to organize with an independent union in place of one controlled by the company. Tridonex is owned by Cardone Industries, an aftermarket auto-parts manufacturer based in Philadelphia.It is the second time that the United States has sought Mexican review of a labor rights matter under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which took effect last summer. The accord has a “rapid response” mechanism that provides for complaints to be brought against and for penalties to be applied to an individual factory.“This announcement demonstrates our commitment to using the tools in the agreement to stand up for workers at home and abroad,” Katherine Tai, the U.S. trade representative, said in a statement, noting that Mexico has 10 days to agree to conduct a review and, if it agrees, 45 days to remedy the situation.Last month the United States asked Mexico to review whether labor violations had occurred at a General Motors plant in the central state of Guanajuato in connection with a recent vote on a collective bargaining agreement. Mexico agreed to the request the same day. More

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    Biden Administration Moves to Unkink Supply Chain Bottlenecks

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    A swath of recommendations calls for more investments, new supply chains and less reliance on other countries for crucial goods.WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Tuesday planned to issue a swath of actions and recommendations meant to address supply chain disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic and decrease reliance on other countries for crucial goods by increasing domestic production capacity. More

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    U.S. Asks Mexico to Investigate Labor Issues at G.M. Facility

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    The administration learned of what appeared to be “serious violations” of labor rights, it said, and is using a new tool in the North American trade deal to seek a review.WASHINGTON — The Biden administration announced on Wednesday that it was asking Mexico to review whether labor violations had occurred at a General Motors facility in the country, a significant step using a new labor enforcement tool in the revised North American trade deal.The administration is seeking the review under the novel “rapid response” mechanism in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement and took effect last summer. Under the mechanism, penalties can be brought against a specific factory for violating workers’ rights of free association and collective bargaining.The administration “received information appearing to indicate serious violations” of workers’ rights at the G.M. facility, in Silao in the central state of Guanajuato, in connection with a recent vote on their collective-bargaining agreement, the Office of the United States Trade Representative said.The vote was stopped last month amid accusations that the union at the facility had tampered with it, according to news reports. Mexico’s Labor Ministry said on Tuesday that it had found “serious irregularities” in the vote and ordered that it be held again within 30 days.The updated North American trade agreement required Mexico to revamp its labor system, and the country overhauled its labor laws in 2019. Sham collective-bargaining agreements known as protection contracts, which are reached with employer-dominated unions, are widespread in the country. Now unions are holding votes to affirm the existing agreements.G.M. said it would cooperate with Mexico’s Labor Ministry and the U.S. government.Henry Romero/ReutersIn a statement, Katherine Tai, the U.S. trade representative, said the announcement on Wednesday “shows the Biden-Harris administration’s serious commitment to workers and a worker-centered trade policy.”“Using U.S.M.C.A. to help protect freedom of association and collective-bargaining rights in Mexico helps workers both at home and in Mexico, by stopping a race to the bottom,” she said, using the initials for the trade deal. “It also supports Mexico’s efforts to implement its recent labor law reforms.”In a statement, General Motors said that it believed it had no role in the alleged labor violations and that it had asked a third-party firm to review the matter. The company, which makes Chevrolet Silverado, Chevrolet Cheyenne and GMC Sierra pickup trucks at the Silao facility, said it would cooperate with Mexico’s Labor Ministry and the U.S. government.“General Motors respects and supports the rights of our employees to make a personal choice about union representation and any collective bargaining on their behalf,” the statement said. “G.M. condemns violations of labor rights and actions to restrict collective bargaining.”In announcing its request for a review by Mexico, the Biden administration avoided striking an adversarial tone with the Mexican government.Ms. Tai praised the government “for stepping in to suspend the vote when it became aware of voting irregularities,” adding, “Today’s action will complement Mexico’s efforts to ensure that these workers can fully exercise their collective-bargaining rights.”On Monday, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and other groups filed a complaint under the rapid response mechanism in which they alleged labor violations at the Tridonex auto parts plants in the Mexican city of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas.The Biden administration will review that complaint, an official in the trade representative’s office said. It could then ask Mexico to conduct a review of that matter akin to the one it is seeking of the G.M. facility.Oscar Lopez More

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    U.S. and Europe Will Suspend Tariffs on Alcohol, Food and Airplanes

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    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyU.S. and Europe Will Suspend Tariffs on Alcohol, Food and AirplanesThe governments agreed to temporarily halt levies on billions of dollars of products as they search for a settlement to a long-running clash over subsidies given to Airbus and Boeing.The dispute over subsidies to Airbus and Boeing started almost two decades ago.Credit…Ulrich Lebeuf for The New York TimesMarch 5, 2021Updated 5:09 p.m. ETThe United States and European Union agreed to temporarily suspend tariffs levied on billions of dollars of each others’ aircraft, wine, food and other products as both sides try to find a negotiated settlement to a long-running dispute over the two leading airplane manufacturers.President Biden and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, agreed in a phone call on Friday to suspend all tariffs imposed in the dispute over subsidies given to Boeing and Airbus for “an initial period of four months,” Ms. von der Leyen said in a statement.“This is excellent news for businesses and industries on both sides of the Atlantic and a very positive signal for our economic cooperation in the years to come,” she said.In a statement, the White House said Mr. Biden had “underscored his support for the European Union and his commitment to repair and revitalize the U.S.-E.U. partnership.”The World Trade Organization had authorized both the United States and Europe to impose tariffs on each other as part of two parallel disputes, which began almost two decades ago, over subsidies the governments have given to Airbus and Boeing. The E.U. had imposed tariffs on roughly $4 billion of American products, while the United States levied tariffs on $7.5 billion of European goods.The aircraft dispute is an early test of the Biden administration’s ability to rebuild America’s relationship with Europe, which U.S. officials see as crucial for accomplishing other trade and foreign policy goals.Former President Donald J. Trump took a more adversarial and aggressive stance toward the bloc. He accused it of cheating the United States on trade and imposed tariffs on European metals, aircraft and other products. He also threatened further tariffs against European automakers.The Biden administration has said it would restore ties with the E.U., formerly a close ally, as it seeks to form coalitions to take on bigger global problems, like China’s unfair trade practices. And it has committed to pressing Europe for a settlement on the aircraft dispute, as well as other continuing trade spats over metals, digital service taxes and other issues.“Finally, we are emerging from the trade war between the United States and Europe, which created only losers,” Bruno Le Maire, the French finance minister, said on Twitter. He added that a burden would be lifted for French winegrowers, whose sales have been pummeled by steep retaliatory tariffs that the Trump administration imposed on imports to the United States.In a joint statement with the European Union, the Office of the United States Trade Representative said the suspension would take effect “as soon as the internal procedures on both sides are completed” and that the agreement signaled “the determination of both sides to embark on a fresh start in the relationship.”The statement said both sides were committed to reaching a comprehensive solution to the disputes, which would include rules on future aircraft subsidies, monitoring and enforcement, and efforts to address “the trade distortive practices of and challenges posed by new entrants to the sector from nonmarket economies, such as China.”The Distilled Spirits Council, a trade group representing the liquor industry, called the decision a “a promising breakthrough in the longstanding trade dispute on civil aircraft subsidies, which has left much destruction to the spirits sector in its wake.”The deal would suspend a 25 percent tariff imposed by Europe on American rum, brandy and vodka, as well as a 25 percent tariff the United States imposed on liqueurs and cordials from Germany, Ireland, Italy and Spain, and Cognacs and other grape brandies from France and Germany. On Thursday, the United States said it would temporarily suspend tariffs levied against the United Kingdom, including on Scotch whisky, as part of the dispute for a period of four months.Monika Pronczuk More

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    Biden Looks to a Consensus Builder to Heal a Democratic Rift on Trade

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    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBiden Looks to a Consensus Builder to Heal a Democratic Rift on TradeKatherine Tai, the Biden administration’s nominee for trade representative, will set the course for the Democrats’ worker-focused approach to trade.Katherine Tai, President Biden’s nominee for U.S. trade representative, will testify before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday.Credit…Hilary Swift for The New York TimesFeb. 24, 2021Updated 6:24 p.m. ETWASHINGTON — The negotiations lasted late into the evening, leaving some members of Congress shouting and pounding the table in frustration as they fought over what would be included in the revised North American Free Trade Agreement.Katherine Tai, the chief trade counsel to the House’s powerful Ways and Means Committee, appeared unflappable to those in the room as she helped to hammer out compromises that would ultimately bring Democrats on board in late 2019 to support the 2,082-page trade pact negotiated by the Trump administration, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.In negotiations throughout 2019, Ms. Tai calmly helped to assemble an unlikely coalition to support the trade deal, ultimately mollifying the concerns of both business lobbyists and labor unions, forging ties between Democrats and Republicans, and helping to persuade Mexican officials to accept strict new oversight of their factories, her former colleagues say.“Katherine was the glue that held us together,” said Representative Suzanne Bonamici, an Oregon Democrat who played a leading role in the negotiations. “If you end up with a product that has support from the A.F.L.-C.I.O. to the Chamber of Commerce, that is an unusual feat.”The Biden administration is now pinning its hopes on Ms. Tai, its nominee for United States trade representative, to serve as a consensus builder and help bridge the Democratic Party’s varying views on trade. Ms. Tai is scheduled to appear for her confirmation hearing on Thursday morning before the Senate Finance Committee.Ms. Tai has strong connections in Congress, and supporters expect her nomination to proceed smoothly. But if confirmed, she will face bigger challenges, including filling in the details of what the Biden administration has called its “worker focused” trade approach.As trade representative, Ms. Tai would be a key player in restoring alliances strained under President Donald J. Trump. She would also be crucial to formulating the administration’s China policy, an area in which she would be expected to draw on her experience bringing cases against Beijing at the World Trade Organization.She would also take charge on decisions on matters that divide the Democratic Party, like whether to keep the tariffs Mr. Trump imposed on foreign products, and whether new foreign trade deals will help the United States compete globally or end up selling American workers short.In a statement prepared for the Finance Committee, Ms. Tai wrote that her “first priority” would be helping American communities emerge from the pandemic and economic crisis, followed by an effort to enforce the terms of the U.S.M.C.A., rebuild international alliances and address China’s unfair trade practices.“I know firsthand how critically important it is that we have a strategic and coherent plan for holding China accountable to its promises and effectively competing with its model of state-directed economics,” her prepared testimony read.Both the Biden administration and members of Congress see finding consensus on trade issues as paramount, given the deep divisions that dogged Democrats in the past.During President Barack Obama’s administration, the trade representative sparred with labor unions and many Democratic lawmakers over the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade pact between countries along the Pacific Rim.Mr. Obama and his supporters saw the agreement as key to countering China. But progressive Democrats believed the pact would send more U.S. jobs offshore and fought the administration on its passage. Mr. Trump withdrew the United States from the deal, and the remaining countries in the pact went on to sign it without the United States.The New WashingtonLatest UpdatesUpdated Feb. 24, 2021, 5:50 p.m. ET‘It was like the old days.’ Biden hails bipartisan spirit after meeting with lawmakers on supply chains.An awkward exchange by top Republicans at the Capitol illustrates their post-Trump reality.Virginia Republicans will pick their nominee for governor at a drive-through convention in May.Democrats “spent a lot of time drilling down on what happened,” said Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who supported the agreement.“I really felt that it was important post-TPP to make sure that the trade conversation started and stopped with how the typical American worker and the typical American consumer would be affected,” he said.What resulted, he said, was the approach in the revised North American trade deal — higher labor standards, tighter environmental regulation and new mechanisms to ensure that the rules of trade agreements can be enforced — which Democrats now describe as the bedrock of their new approach to trade.“Katherine was very much involved in all of those discussions,” Mr. Wyden said. “She’s a real coalition builder. And that was particularly important to me, because of the whole TPP period.”The Port of Oakland in California. If confirmed, Ms. Tai will make decisions on matters that divide the Democratic Party, like whether new foreign trade deals will help the United States compete globally.Credit…Jim Wilson/The New York TimesSenator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat who opposed the Pacific trade deal and then worked with Mr. Wyden on the new North American pact’s rules for workers, said the Democratic Party had coalesced around this new policy of strong and enforceable trade rules.“That is a new policy for a Democratic administration, for sure,” he said. “But it’s because the Democratic Party en masse, that’s where we are.”Mr. Brown has fought with presidents of his own party about trade in the past, “including some not very nice exchanges,” he said. “I’ve fought with their trade representatives, and this is absolutely a different era.”“You will have trade policy that will actually work for workers,” he said.The Biden administration has gone to great lengths to cement its ties with congressional Democrats who are influential on trade. In addition to Ms. Tai’s nomination, it has recruited key staff members for the trade representative’s office from both Mr. Wyden’s and Mr. Brown’s offices. It has also hired former employees of Democratic representatives like Suzan DelBene of Washington, Jimmy Gomez of California and John Lewis of Georgia.But that does not mean Mr. Biden’s trade policy will be without dispute. Despite strong ties to congressional Democrats and labor unions, the administration will still have to balance the concerns of other factions, like big tech companies that are important donors and foreign policy experts who see freer trade as a way to shore up America’s position in the multilateral system. Those positions could be difficult to reconcile, trade experts say.Some have also questioned how much influence Ms. Tai might have on matters like China and tariffs, given that she is a relative newcomer to the administration. Mr. Biden has appointed several old contacts to his foreign policy team who have worked closely with him for years, including Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken; Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser; and Kurt Campbell, the top U.S. diplomat for Asia.But Ms. Tai’s supporters say she will probably be an influential voice on trade given her deep expertise and understanding of trade policy. If confirmed, Ms. Tai would be the first Asian-American and woman of color to serve as the U.S. trade representative. Ms. Tai’s parents were born in China and moved to Taiwan before immigrating to the United States, where they worked as government scientists.Ms. Tai, who was born in Connecticut, speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese and lived and worked in China as a teaching fellow in the late 1990s. She received a B.A. from Yale and a law degree from Harvard, and went on to work as an associate for several Washington law firms and a clerk for two district judges.From 2007 to 2014, Ms. Tai worked for the Office of the United States Trade Representative, where she successfully prosecuted several cases on Chinese trade practices at the World Trade Organization, including a challenge to China’s curbs on exports of rare earth minerals.When she was hired, the office was in the middle of trying to parse a particular Chinese legal measure and gave it to Ms. Tai to translate as part of her interview, said Claire Reade, a former assistant trade representative for China affairs who is now a senior counsel at Arnold & Porter. “We got a second expert opinion free of charge,” she said.In the Obama administration, and in her work negotiating a consensus on the North American trade deal, Ms. Tai displayed a range of skills that will help her succeed as the trade representative, Ms. Reade said — leadership and initiative, the political and diplomatic skills to navigate the interagency process of government, a good instinct for reading people and a wide grasp of complex trade matters.“She really in her work has gone through hellfire and has come out the other side — which means, as I say, she’s not to be underestimated,” Ms. Reade said.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    W.T.O. Set to Gain New Chief, but Deep Issues Remain

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    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyW.T.O. Set to Gain New Chief, but Deep Issues RemainThe appointment of the Nigerian economist Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to lead the World Trade Organization removes one obstacle, but the group’s future remains uncertain.Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a development economist who spent 25 years working at the World Bank, will become the first woman to lead the World Trade Organization.Credit…Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFeb. 14, 2021, 3:26 p.m. ETWASHINGTON — Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a Nigerian economist and former finance minister, is poised to become the first woman and first African to lead the World Trade Organization, when the members of the global trade body meet on Monday to consider her candidacy for director general.The appointment would remove a key obstacle to the functioning of the World Trade Organization, which has been leaderless during a time of growing protectionism and global economic upheaval brought about by the pandemic. But even with Dr. Okonjo-Iweala at the helm and the renewed support of the Biden administration, the World Trade Organization, which was founded in 1995 to ensure that trade flows as smoothly and freely as possible, will face steep challenges surrounding its effectiveness as the world’s trade arbiter.Trade negotiations, including an effort to restrain harmful subsidies given to the fishing industry, have dragged on without resolution. A key part of the organization for settling trade disputes, called the appellate body, remains crippled after the Trump administration blocked appointments of new personnel. And there are deep divisions over whether rich and poor countries should receive different treatment under global trade rules.There is also growing consensus that the World Trade Organization has failed to police some of China’s worst economic offenses, which many in the United States consider the world’s biggest trade challenge today. And there is deep uncertainty about whether the group can be overhauled to address those shortcomings.“There are a lot of issues that are begging for reform,” said Wendy Cutler, a former U.S. trade negotiator and a vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute. She said that the Biden administration’s support for Dr. Okonjo-Iweala could be “an easy way to gain good will and get everyone focused on the important substantive issues.”The Trump administration spent the last four years mostly criticizing or ignoring the World Trade Organization, ultimately weakening the institution by carrying out its most prominent trade policies outside of its boundaries. Rather than working with the World Trade Organization, President Donald J. Trump took on trading partners like China and the European Union one-on-one, deploying hefty tariffs that those governments argued contravened the W.T.O.’s rules.President Biden is likely to take a very different approach. He has criticized Mr. Trump for alienating allies and weakening the multilateral system, and is expected to make the United States a more active player in international groups including the World Trade Organization.That includes supporting the organization’s new leadership. On Feb. 5, the Biden administration announced it would support Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, reversing efforts by the Trump administration to block her candidacy.The former director general, Roberto Azevêdo, announced last May that he would leave the job a year early and departed in August. While the vast majority of the organization’s members supported Dr. Okonjo-Iweala to replace him, Trump administration officials, particularly the former trade representative Robert E. Lighthizer, had criticized her lack of trade experience, and supported the South Korean candidate, the trade minister Yoo Myung-hee, instead.On Feb. 5, Ms. Yoo withdrew from the race.Robert Lighthizer, the Trump administration’s trade representative, expressed no regrets for the role he played in suspending the W.T.O.’s dispute settlement system.Credit…Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times“The United States stands ready to engage in the next phase of the W.T.O. process for reaching a consensus decision on the W.T.O. director general,” the Office of the United States Trade Representative said in a Feb. 5 statement. “The Biden administration looks forward to working with a new W.T.O. director general to find paths forward to achieve necessary substantive and procedural reform of the W.T.O.”Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, 66, is a development economist who spent 25 years working at the World Bank, including as managing director, and served two terms as Nigeria’s finance minister, as well as the country’s foreign affairs minister. A U.S. citizen who earned a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she serves on the boards of Twitter and Standard Chartered and is an adviser to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Until recently she served on the board of GAVI, an international organization that distributes vaccines to poor countries.In her first stint as finance minister, she led negotiations that resulted in most of Nigeria’s external debt being wiped out. Later, as coordinating minister of the economy in Nigeria — a powerful position created for her that has never been held before or since — many ministers took directives from her, according to Patrick Okigbo, a policy analyst based in Abuja.In her 2018 book, “Fighting Corruption Is Dangerous,” Dr. Okonjo-Iweala wrote about how her reforms to tackle corruption and shore up the economy made her many enemies. When her mother was briefly kidnapped, she said, the kidnappers demanded Dr. Okonjo-Iweala resign.Her years of navigating Nigerian politics, with its many internal factions and vested interests, had made her “a pro” at choosing and fighting the big battles, Mr. Okigbo said.“If she could handle Nigeria, she should be able to do a good job at the World Trade Organization,” he said.Dr. Okonjo-Iweala has said that her earliest priorities will be ensuring the free flow of vaccines, medicines and medical supplies to help deal with the pandemic and aid the global economic recovery. She has vowed to push for new trade agreements on fisheries and the e-commerce industry, and called for finding “solutions to the stalemate over dispute settlement.” She also said she would prioritize updating trade rules, encouraging members to be transparent and notify one another of changes to their policies, and strengthening the organization’s bureaucracy.Following Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s appointment, one of the most pressing issues for the World Trade Organization will most likely be the paralysis of its system for settling trade disputes.The appellate body, a part of the organization that considers appeals by countries to W.T.O. decisions on trade disputes, has been shuttered for over a year, after the Trump administration blocked new appointments to the panel that hears those arguments. The Trump administration argued that the appellate body had exceeded the mandate it was created with, ultimately engaging in a kind of judicial activism that undercut U.S. trade law, harming American workers and infringing on American sovereignty.Before leaving office in January, Mr. Lighthizer expressed no regrets for the role he played in suspending the W.T.O.’s dispute settlement system, saying in an interview that it had “become a net negative for America, and getting rid of it was a positive for American interests.”He added that the World Trade Organization had “been largely a failure,” though he said that getting rid of the group entirely would “create more problems than it’s worth.”“I don’t think it did what we said people wanted it to. It hasn’t done anything on the negotiating front to speak of,” Mr. Lighthizer said.While the Biden administration is unlikely to be as critical or confrontational as the Trump administration about the issues plaguing the World Trade Organization, some Democrats share certain concerns about the organization’s shortcomings, including whether the appellate body has unfairly constrained U.S. trade policy. And many officials in the Biden administration recognize the World Trade Organization has only limited power to push China to make economic reforms.The Biden administration’s nominee for United States trade representative, Katherine Tai, knows well the W.T.O.’s strengths and shortcomings.Credit…Hilary Swift for The New York TimesThe Biden administration’s nominee for United States trade representative, Katherine Tai, is intimately acquainted with both the strengths and shortcomings of the global trade body, having successfully litigated cases against Chinese export restrictions at the World Trade Organization during the Obama administration, when she served as general counsel for the office of the trade representative.Ms. Tai led a legal challenge, supported by Canada, Japan and the European Union, to a ban China had imposed on the export of rare earth materials, a key input for electronics. The United States won the case, and China dropped its quotas in 2015.Last week, the Biden administration also announced that it was appointing Mark Wu, a Harvard Law School professor who has written about the World Trade Organization’s shortcomings when it comes to China, as a senior adviser to the office of the trade representative.In an influential 2016 paper, Mr. Wu argued that the World Trade Organization had effectively disciplined China in areas where it has relevant rules. But for some of China’s most egregious economic practices — in particular, the state’s prominent role in industry and its heavy subsidies paid to businesses — the World Trade Organization has fallen short, Mr. Wu said.“The W.T.O. system works but only up to a point,” Mr. Wu wrote. “The W.T.O. faces a challenge: Can the institution craft a predictable and fair set of legal rules to address new trade-distortive behavior arising out of China Inc.? If not, key countries may turn away from the W.T.O. to address these issues. This will weaken the institution.”Ruth Maclean More