Jan 3 (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named Robert Lighthizer as his pick for U.S. trade representative, his transition team said in a statement. Below is a list of Republican Trump's selections for top jobs in his administration. Senate confirmation is required for all the posts except national security adviser and White House posts. SECRETARY OF STATE: REX TILLERSON Tillerson, 64, has spent his entire career at Exxon Mobil Corp, where he rose to chairman and chief executive officer in 2006. A civil engineer by training, the Texan joined the world's largest energy company in 1975 and led several of its operations in the United States as well as in Yemen, Thailand and Russia. As Exxon's chief executive, he maintained close ties with Moscow and opposed U.S. sanctions against Russia for its incursion into Crimea. TREASURY SECRETARY: STEVEN MNUCHIN Mnuchin, 54, is a successful private equity investor, hedge fund manager and Hollywood financier who spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs Group Inc before leaving in 2002. He assembled an investor group to buy a failed California mortgage lender in 2009, rebranded it as OneWest Bank and built it into Southern California's largest bank. Housing advocacy groups criticized the bank for its foreclosure practices, accusing it of being too quick to foreclose on struggling homeowners. DEFENSE SECRETARY: JAMES MATTIS Mattis is a retired Marine general known for his tough talk, distrust of Iran and battlefield experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. A former leader of Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East and South Asia, Mattis, 66, is known by many U.S. forces by his nickname "Mad Dog." He was rebuked in 2005 for saying: "It's fun to shoot some people." U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: JEFF SESSIONS Sessions, 70, was the first U.S. senator to endorse Trump's presidential bid and has been a close ally since. Son of a country store owner, the senator from Alabama and former federal prosecutor has long taken a tough stance on illegal immigration, opposing any path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. INTERIOR SECRETARY: RYAN ZINKE Zinke, 55, a first-term Republican representative from Montana and a member of the House subcommittee on natural resources, has voted for legislation that would weaken environmental safeguards on public lands. He has taken stances favoring coal, which suffered during the Obama administration. The League of Conservation Voters, which ranks lawmakers on their environmental record, gave Zinke an extremely low lifetime score of 3 percent. COMMERCE SECRETARY: WILBUR ROSS Ross, 79, heads the private equity firm W.L. Ross & Co, and Forbes has pegged his net worth at about $2.9 billion. A staunch supporter of Trump, Ross helped shape the Trump campaign's views on trade policy. He blames massive U.S. factory job losses on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico, which went into force in 1994, and the 2001 entry of China into the World Trade Organization. U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE: ROBERT LIGHTHIZER Lighthizer served as deputy U.S. trade representative during the Reagan administration in the 1980s and has since spent nearly three decades as a lawyer representing U.S. companies in anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases, currently with the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom. A harsh critic of China's trade practices, Lighthizer in 2010 told Congress that U.S. policymakers should take a more aggressive approach in dealing with the Asian country. LABOR SECRETARY: ANDREW PUZDER Puzder, chief executive officer of CKE Restaurants Inc , which runs the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's fast-food chains, has been a vociferous critic of government regulation of the workplace and the National Labor Relations Board. Puzder, 66, has argued that higher minimum wages would hurt workers by forcing restaurants to close and praises the benefits of automation, so his appointment is likely to antagonize organized labor. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: TOM PRICE U.S. Representative Price, 62, is an orthopedic surgeon who heads the House Budget Committee. A representative from Georgia since 2005, Price has criticized Obamacare and has championed a plan of tax credits, expanded health savings accounts and lawsuit reforms to replace it. He is opposed to abortion. HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT SECRETARY: BEN CARSON Carson, 65, is a retired neurosurgeon who dropped out of the Republican presidential nominating race in March and threw his support to Trump. A popular writer and speaker in conservative circles, Carson had been reluctant to take a position in the incoming administration because of his lack of experience in the federal government. He is the first African-American picked for a Cabinet spot by Trump. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: ELAINE CHAO Chao, 63, was labor secretary under President George W. Bush for eight years and the first Asian-American woman to hold a Cabinet position. She is a director at Ingersoll Rand Plc , News Corp and Vulcan Materials Co. She is married to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky. ENERGY SECRETARY: RICK PERRY Perry, 66, adds to the list of oil drilling advocates skeptical about climate change who have been picked for senior positions in Trump's Cabinet. The selections have worried environmentalists but cheered an oil and gas industry eager for expansion. Perry, who ran unsuccessfully for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination and briefly ran for president in 2016, would be responsible for U.S. energy policy and oversee the nation's nuclear weapons program. EDUCATION SECRETARY: BETSY DEVOS DeVos, 58, is a billionaire Republican donor, a former chair of the Michigan Republican Party and an advocate for the privatization of education. As chair of the American Federation for Children, she has pushed at the state level for vouchers that families can use to send their children to private schools and for expansion of charter schools. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: JOHN KELLY The final leadership role of Kelly's 45-year military career was head of the U.S. Southern Command, responsible for U.S. military activities and relationships in Latin America and the Caribbean. The 66-year-old retired Marine general differed with Democratic President Barack Obama on key issues and has warned of vulnerabilities along the United States' southern border with Mexico. WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: REINCE PRIEBUS Priebus recently was re-elected to serve as Republican National Committee chairman but will give up the job to join Trump in the White House, where the low-key Washington operative could help forge ties with Congress to advance Trump's agenda. Priebus, 44, was a steadfast supporter of Trump during the presidential campaign even as the party fractured amid the choice. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY ADMINISTRATOR: SCOTT PRUITT An ardent opponent of Obama's measures to stem climate change, Oklahoma Attorney General Pruitt, 48, has enraged environmental activists. But he fits with the president-elect's promise to cut the agency back and eliminate regulation that he says is stifling oil and gas drilling. Pruitt became the top state prosecutor for Oklahoma, which has extensive oil reserves, in 2011 and has challenged the EPA multiple times since. OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET: MICK MULVANEY U.S. Representative Mick Mulvaney, 49, a South Carolina Republican, is a fiscal conservative. He was an outspoken critic of former House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, who resigned in 2015 amid opposition from fellow Republicans who were members of the House Freedom Caucus. Mulvaney was first elected to Congress in 2010. U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: NIKKI HALEY Haley, 44, has been the Republican governor of South Carolina since 2011 and has little experience in foreign policy or the federal government. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she led a successful push last year to remove the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the South Carolina state capitol after the killing of nine black churchgoers in Charleston by a white gunman. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION ADMINISTRATOR: LINDA MCMAHON McMahon, 68, is a co-founder and former chief executive of the professional wrestling franchise WWE, which is based in Stamford, Connecticut. She ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for a U.S. Senate seat in Connecticut in 2010 and 2012 and was an early supporter of Trump's presidential campaign. CIA DIRECTOR: MIKE POMPEO U.S. Representative Pompeo, 53, is a third-term congressman from Kansas who serves on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, which oversees the CIA, National Security Agency and cyber security. A retired Army officer and Harvard Law School graduate, Pompeo supports the U.S. government's sweeping collection of Americans' communications data and wants to scrap the nuclear deal with Iran. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: MICHAEL FLYNN Retired Lieutenant General Flynn was an early Trump supporter and serves as vice chairman on his transition team. He began his Army career in 1981 and was deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. Flynn became head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2012 under Obama but retired a year earlier than expected, according to media reports, and became a fierce critic of Obama's foreign policy. WHITE HOUSE HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISER Tom Bossert, 41, who worked as deputy homeland security adviser to former Republican President George W. Bush, will serve as the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism. He currently runs a risk management consulting firm and has a cyber risk fellowship with the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington. NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DIRECTOR: GARY COHN Cohn, 56, president and chief operating officer of investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc, had widely been considered heir apparent to Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of the Wall Street firm. Trump hammered Goldman and Blankfein during the presidential campaign, releasing a television ad that called Blankfein part of a "global power structure" that had robbed America's working class. NATIONAL TRADE COUNCIL DIRECTOR: PETER NAVARRO Navarro, 67, has suggested a stepped-up engagement with Taiwan, including assistance with a submarine development program. A professor at University of California, Irvine, who advised Trump during the campaign, Navarro argued that Washington should stop referring to the "one China" policy, but stopped short of suggesting it should recognize Taipei: "There is no need to unnecessarily poke the Panda." SECRETARY OF THE ARMY: VINCENT VIOLA Viola, 60, is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point graduate and a U.S. Army veteran who served in the famed 101st Airborne Division. He founded high-frequency trading firm Virtu Financial Inc and served as chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange, where he began his financial services career. After the Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington, Viola helped found the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. He is an owner of the Florida Panthers ice hockey team. CHIEF WHITE HOUSE STRATEGIST, SENIOR COUNSELOR: STEVE BANNON The former head of the conservative website Breitbart News came aboard as Trump's campaign chairman in August. A rabble-rousing conservative media figure, he helped shift Breitbart into a forum for the alt-right, a loose confederation of those who reject mainstream politics and includes neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites. His hiring signals Trump's dedication to operating outside the norms of Washington. As White House chief of staff, Bannon, 63, will serve as Trump's gatekeeper and agenda-setter. (Reporting by Washington Newsroom; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)</s>YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – President-elect Donald Trump tweeted about General Motors Tuesday morning, admonishing the company for on its trade practices.

Trump specifically is calling out the company on bringing its Mexico-made Chevy Cruze to the U.S.</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named Robert Lighthizer, an official in the Reagan administration and harsh critic of China’s trade practices, to be his chief trade negotiator, responsible for better deals aimed at reducing U.S. trade deficits.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump arrive for a New Year's Eve celebration with members and guests at the Mar-a-lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. December 31, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Trump, who promised during his presidential campaign to renegotiate international trade deals like NAFTA and punish companies that ship work overseas, said in announcing his choice that Lighthizer would help “fight for good trade deals that put the American worker first.”Lighthizer is a former deputy U.S. trade representative under former Republican President Ronald Reagan who helped to stem the tide of imports from Japan in the 1980s with threats of quotas and punitive tariffs.

His return to the agency follows nearly three decades as a lawyer representing U.S. steelmakers and other companies in anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases.

Lighthizer has argued that China has failed to live up to commitments made in 2001 when it joined the World Trade Organization and that tougher tactics are needed to change the system, even if it means deviating from World Trade Organization rules.

“Years of passivity and drift among U.S. policymakers have allowed the U.S.­-China trade deficit to grow to the point where it is widely recognized as a major threat to our economy,” Lighthizer wrote in 2010 congressional testimony.

“Going forward, U.S. policymakers should take these problems more seriously, and should take a much more aggressive approach in dealing with China,” he wrote.

Lighthizer is regarded as an experienced tactician with an intimate knowledge of trade tools that were widely used before the WTO was created in 1995, including “Section 301” tariffs used to stem a tide of imports of Japanese steel and vehicles in the 1980s.

During his tenure, Reagan struck the 1985 Plaza Accord currency deal with Japan, Germany and other major trading partners that brought down the dollar’s value and encouraged more foreign companies to set up U.S. manufacturing plants.

“Bob Lighthizer is very smart, very strategic and totally fearless,” said a Washington attorney who has worked with him for three decades but asked not to be named. “You can expect him to use every tool available to create leverage to get China and anyone else to stop the cheating. He is no fan of the WTO.”

Still, Lighthizer is not expected to be the Trump administration’s leading voice on trade policy. Last month, Trump’s team said that task would fall to the U.S. Commerce Secretary nominee, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross..

Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has also named Peter Navarro, an economist and adviser who has urged a hard line against China, as the head of a newly formed White House National Trade Council.</s>President-elect Donald Trump offered a new job to former reality TV star Omarosa Manigault in his administration, reports the New York Daily News.

The “Apprentice” alum, who gained fame during the show’s first season, will focus on public engagement in her new role after previously working in a related position with Trump, writes the news outlet:

Manigault had served as Trump’s director of African-American outreach since July and had appeared throughout the campaign as a prominent surrogate for the mogul.

In the weeks since Trump’s November win, she’d also been working with the mogul’s transition team.

In addition to Manigault, Trump’s transition team said Tuesday that the President-elect would nominate Robert Lighthizer as his U.S. trade representative.

The role with Trump was not Manigault’s first choice: a transition official disclosed that the former TV star “expressed a desire” to be the ambassador to Haiti, reports ABC News.

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Omarosa Says Black People Should Educate Whites After Trump Victory</s>U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to pick Robert Lighthizer to serve as his U.S. Trade Representative, tapping a seasoned trade negotiator to enact a key aspect of his agenda, senior transition officials said on Monday. Lighthizer served as a deputy U.S. trade representative with the rank of ambassador under Republican President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, according to a biography posted on the web site of Skadden Arps, the law firm where he is currently a partner.

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In the decades since he has represented U.S. clients in antidumping cases and pushed to open access to foreign markets, the biography says. As Trump’s trade representative, Lighthizer would play a key role in enacting a get-tough policy that could heighten tensions with China and other key U.S. trading partners.

However, he likely will not serve as the main architect of Trump’s trade policy. According to a transition spokesman, that role will go to billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, who Trump has picked to serve as Commerce Secretary.

On the campaign trail, Trump promised to renegotiate international trade deals like NAFTA and punish companies that ship work overseas.

Trump has kept up the rhetoric since his surprise November election. He criticized China on Twitter on Monday for “taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the U.S. in totally one-sided trade” while refusing to rein in nuclear-armed North Korea.</s>President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named Robert Lighthizer, a lawyer and former trade official during the Reagan administration, as his nominee for U.S. trade representative.

Lighthizer was deputy U.S. trade representative during the Reagan administration. He is a partner at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom.

“Ambassador Lighthizer is going to do an outstanding job representing the United States as we fight for good trade deals that put the American worker first,” Trump said in a statement.

The office of U.S. trade representative, created in 1962, is typically the government’s chief negotiator for trade deals and disputes.

The top job requires Senate confirmation. Under Trump, it is not expected to have as much power as it has in the past, several sources have told CNN.

Instead, the incoming administration aims to give the Commerce Department a bigger role on trade policy and negotiations, according to the sources. Trump has tapped billionaire investor Wilbur Ross as Commerce secretary.

Trump also added a wrinkle to the issue of trade policy when he named economist Peter Navarro to lead the newly created White House Trade Council.

The current trade rep, Michael Froman, was the Obama administration’s lead negotiator on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a deal that Trump has said he will withdraw from.</s>Tuesday morning, President-elect Donald Trump announced the nomination of Ambassador Robert Lighthizer as U.S. Trade Representative, one of the final four Cabinet-level positions he will need to fill to complete his administration.

Lighthizer served as Deputy U.S. Trade Representative under President Ronald Reagan, and played a leading role in developing trade policy by negotiating roughly two dozen bilateral international agreements on a variety of topics from steel to grain. The emphasis under President-elect Trump will be to repeat his success in the 1980s by significantly reducing the shipment of "unfairly traded" imports into the United States.

"Ambassador Lighthizer is going to do an outstanding job representing the United States as we fight for good trade deals that put the American worker first," the president-elect said. "He has extensive experience striking agreements that protect some of the most important sectors of our economy, and has repeatedly fought in the private sector to prevent bad deals from hurting Americans. He will do an amazing job helping turn around the failed trade policies which have robbed so many Americans of prosperity."

The Presidential Transition Team issued the following statement about Lighthizer:

In his new role, Ambassador Lighthizer will work in close coordination with Secretary of Commerce-designate Wilbur Ross and Peter Navarro, head of the newly created White House National Trade Council, to develop and implement policies that shrink our trade deficit, expand economic growth, strengthen our manufacturing base and help stop the exodus of jobs from our shores.

Ambassador Lighthizer has long been a leader in U.S. trade policy, and has extensive experience in the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the private sector. Aside from his service in the Reagan administration, he was Chief of Staff of the United States Senate Committee of Finance when Congress passed the Reagan program of tax cuts and spending reductions, and also aided in the passage of legislation which implemented the Tokyo Round of trade negotiations. He has also represented the United States at meetings of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and meetings related to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (the precursor to the World Trade Organization).

Ambassador Lighthizer headed up the international trade law practice at Skadden, Arps Slate, Meagher and Flom for over three decades. He has represented American manufacturers in many of the largest and most significant trade cases of the last 25 years, such as the steel safeguard case of the early 2000s—the last time any president granted global safeguard relief. He has worked on scores of successful cases that resulted in reducing unfair imports and helping thousands of American workers and numerous businesses.

Ambassador Lighthizer has also been an outspoken commentator on trade issues, giving speeches and writing articles for the New York Times and other publications, as well as providing testimony to key Congressional committees, the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission, and other government agencies with responsibility for trade policy. He graduated from Georgetown University and the Georgetown University Law Center.

"It is a very high honor to represent our nation and to serve in President-elect Trump's administration as the U.S. Trade Representative," Lighthizer said. "I am fully committed to President-elect Trump's mission to level the playing field for American workers and forge better trade policies which will benefit all Americans."

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Has God called you to be a leader? Ministry Today magazine is the source that Christian leaders who want to serve with passion and purpose turn to. Subscribe now and receive a free leadership book.</s>US President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday tapped Robert Lighthizer to be U.S. trade representative, but his influence may be limited as Trump fills his team with wealthy deal makers.

Lighthizer, an official in the Reagan administration and a harsh critic of China’s trade practices, will be tasked with seeking deals aimed at reducing U.S. trade deficits. He joins Trump’s choices for commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, and the head of a newly formed White House National Trade Council, Peter Navarro, as key officials in an administration where trade is very likely to take center stage.

Trump has also tapped his company’s long-time top lawyer, Jason Greenblatt, as a “special negotiator” for trade deals and other talks. It is unclear how these appointees will direct trade policy. While the Trump transition team has said the trade representative will still be the principal negotiator for trade deals, it has also said that Ross will be in charge of trade decisions.

Using multiple officials to shape trade policy is not new, said Scott Lincicome, an international trade attorney with White and Case. He noted that trade issues have often been tackled by various government agencies with differing objectives but said actual negotiations with other nations require a very clear line of authority. “If you actually have four guys show up at a trade negotiation, you’d have a problem,” said Lincicome, who stressed that countries must be certain that the U.S. negotiator has the support of the president.

“These are very high level diplomatic negotiations. Other countries take very seriously the diplomatic hierarchy. There is protocol,” he said. Trump, who promised during his campaign to renegotiate international trade deals such as NAFTA and punish companies that ship work overseas, has said that overhauling trade policy will be a top priority after he takes office on Jan. 20.

“USTR will still have statutory negotiation and enforcement powers, but where the big ideas on trade emerge from within a Trump administration remains to be seen,” said Marc Scribner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Lighthizer, deputy U.S. trade representative under Reagan, helped to stem the tide of imports from Japan in the 1980s with threats of quotas and punitive tariffs.

His return to the agency follows nearly three decades as a lawyer representing U.S. steelmakers and other companies in anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases. Lighthizer is regarded as an experienced tactician with an intimate knowledge of trade tools that were widely used before the WTO was created in 1995, including “Section 301” tariffs used to stem a tide of imports of Japanese steel and vehicles in the 1980s.</s>WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - President-elect Donald Trump intends to nominate trade lawyer Robert Lighthizer as U.S. trade representative, the presidential transition team announced on Tuesday.



Lighthizer, a partner at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, previously served as deputy U.S. trade representative under President Ronald Reagan.



'Ambassador Lighthizer is going to do an outstanding job representing the United States as we fight for good trade deals that put the American worker first,' Trump said in a statement. 



The president-elect added, 'He has extensive experience striking agreements that protect some of the most important sectors of our economy, and has repeatedly fought in the private sector to prevent bad deals from hurting Americans.'



Lighthizer's views on U.S. trade policy are seen as in line with those of Trump, who has been critical of free trade deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and NAFTA and pledged to be tougher on counties such as China.



In a statement, Lighthizer said he is fully committed to Trump's mission to level the playing field for American workers and forge better trade policies which will benefit all Americans.



Trump's views on trade were reflected in a post to Twitter on Tuesday in which he criticized General Motors (GM) for sending a Mexican-made model of the Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers tax-free.



'General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border,' Trump tweeted. 'Make in U.S.A. or pay big border tax!'



(Photo: Michael Vadon)



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX</s>President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday tapped Robert Lighthizer, a former Reagan administration official and longtime international trade attorney, to be his U.S. trade representative.

The Cabinet-level post will be especially important under Trump, who pledged during his campaign to strike trade deals that are more advantageous for the U.S. and scrap ones he deems unfair.

“Ambassador Lighthizer is going to do an outstanding job representing the United States as we fight for good trade deals that put the American worker first,” Trump said in a written statement.

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“He has extensive experience striking agreements that protect some of the most important sectors of our economy, and has repeatedly fought in the private sector to prevent bad deals from hurting Americans," Trump said. "He will do an amazing job helping turn around the failed trade policies which have robbed so many Americans of prosperity.”

The significance of trade to Trump was made clear shortly after the announcement when he complained via Twitter that General Motors Corp. was selling Chevrolet Cruze vehicles made in Mexico tax-free in the U.S.

GM responded that nearly all the Chevy Cruze vehicles sold in the U.S. are made here.

“All Chevrolet Cruze sedans sold in the U.S. are built in GM’s assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio,” the company said. “GM builds the Chevrolet Cruze hatchback for global markets in Mexico, with a small number sold in the U.S.”

Lighthizer called Trump's intention to nominate him “a very high honor."

“I am fully committed to President-elect Trump’s mission to level the playing field for American workers and forge better trade policies which will benefit all Americans," Lighthizer said.

Lighthizer was deputy trade representative during the Reagan administration with responsibility for industry, agriculture, investment and trade policy matters. He negotiated two dozen bilateral trade deals, according to his biography for the Skadden, Arps Slate, Meagher and Flom law firm, where he has headed the international trade practice for about 30 years.

Before joining the Reagan administration, Lighthizer had been chief of staff for the Senate Finance Committee. In that job, he helped pass legislation that implemented a major round of trade negotiations.

The Trump statement said Lighthizer "has represented American manufacturers in many of the largest and most significant trade cases of the last 25 years."

"He has worked on scores of successful cases that resulted in reducing unfair imports and helping thousands of American workers and numerous businesses," the statement said.

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Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), said he looked forward to “a vigorous discussion of Bob’s trade philosophy and priorities” during his confirmation hearing.

“Ensuring our past, present, and future trade agreements are the best possible deals for American workers and job creators is a shared goal supported by pro-trade lawmakers and the Trump administration alike,” Hatch said.

Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch said Lighthizer’s skepticism about trade puts him at odds with several other Trump Cabinet nominees who supported the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal. Trump opposed the deal and it’s likely to be scrapped once he takes office.

“Lighthizer is very knowledgeable about both technical trade policy and the ways of Washington, but what sets him aside among high-level Republican trade experts is that for decades his views have been shaped by the pragmatic outcomes of trade agreements and policies rather than fealty to any particular ideology or theory,” said Wallach, whose organization also opposes TPP.

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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says that Robert Lighthizer will be the country's chief trade negotiator.