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Veteran from Trump's first term set to help lead trade

initiatives

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Set to take helm just days ahead of tariff deadlines for

Mexico,

Canada

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Greer wants a USMCA renegotiation "right out of the gate"

By David Lawder

WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - A majority of the U.S.

Senate on Wednesday voted to confirm Jamieson Greer as U.S.

Trade Representative, putting the veteran of President Donald

Trump's first-term trade wars fully on the job just days ahead

of a March 4 deadline for punishing 25% tariffs on imports from

Canada and Mexico.

With voting on the Senate floor still underway, Greer had

secured more than the majority needed to confirm his nomination.

Greer, a Washington trade lawyer who served as chief of

staff to former USTR Robert Lighthizer, is set to take office as

Mexican and Canadian officials were working to persuade the

Trump administration that their efforts to secure U.S. borders

were working to halt inflows of migrants, fentanyl and the

deadly opioid's precursor chemicals.

Trump initially threatened the North American tariffs by

declaring a February 1 national emergency over immigration and

fentanyl under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act,

using the same action to punish China with 10% tariffs over the

fentanyl trade.

But over the past month, Trump's tariff actions have

mushroomed, including raising effective steel tariffs back up to

25% by rescinding exemptions and raising aluminum tariffs to the

same level. These would launch on March 12 and hit Canada and

Mexico the hardest.

Trump on Tuesday launched a new tariff probe into copper

imports, just days after reviving investigations aimed at

imposing tariffs on countries that levy digital services taxes

on U.S. technology firms. And Greer will help lead an effort

ordered by Trump to determine higher "reciprocal" U.S. tariff

rates to match other countries' import duties and offset

non-tariff trade barriers.

RENEGOTIATING USMCA

Some trade experts have said a possible outcome of next

week's Canada and Mexico tariff deadline could be the launch of

an early renegotiation of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on

trade, the revamped trade deal launched by Trump in 2020. The

trade deal is due to be reviewed by 2026.

But Trump said on Monday that the tariffs on Canadian and

Mexican goods are "on time and on schedule".

Ford Motor ( F ) CEO Jim Farley has said the tariffs would

"blow a hole" in the U.S. auto industry, which has operations in

all three countries with parts and vehicles crisscrossing

borders.

Greer told senators during his Senate confirmation hearing

that he wanted to quickly renegotiate the USMCA to ensure that

China does not use the agreement as a back door to the U.S.

market to avoid other tariffs.

"Right out of the gate, I expect that we'll be taking a

second look at the USMCA," Greer said.

Asked what changes he would like to see in the pact, Greer

zeroed in on further tightening automotive content rules.

"I think we should look at the rule of origin for

automobiles and aerospace and other things to look and see if we

need to have any kind of restriction on content or value added

from foreign countries of concern, or non-market economies," he

said, using language that U.S. trade officials often use to

describe China.

"Countries that benefit from unfair trading practices or

subsidies and somehow get their content into goods that are

going across the border."

Greer helped negotiate the revamp of the 1994 North American

Free Trade Agreement during Trump's first term, which increased

the regional automotive components content level to 75% from

62.5% and required minimum levels of U.S. content.

He also helped implement Trump's 2018 and 2019 tariffs of up

to 25% on some $370 billion worth of Chinese imports at the time

over intellectual property misappropriation. Former U.S.

President Joe Biden kept these in place and added steep tariffs

on Chinese electric vehicles, solar cells and semiconductors.