The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Katherine Tai as U.S. Trade Representative by a unanimous 98-0 vote.
Tai served as the chief trade counsel for the House Ways and Means Committee, having first joined the committee in 2014. Born in Connecticut and raised in Washington, D.C., Tai received a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a juris doctor from Harvard University before serving at USTR’s Office of General Counsel from 2007-2014. Fluent in Mandarin, she spent two years in China teaching English after college. She assumed the role of chief counsel on China trade enforcement in the Obama administration.
She is the first Asian-American to serve as the U.S. Trade Representative.
In her Senate confirmation hearing, Tai said she will use her role to give priority to the enforcement of existing trade agreements, rather than signing new ones.
