President-elect Joe Biden should keep pressing China to stick to the “Phase 1” trade deal, which Beijing has done a “reasonably good job” implementing parts of, using tariffs as leverage, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told Reuters.
Speaking late on Tuesday in a rare interview, Lighthizer defended the Trump administration’s record in shredding the status quo on trade and imposing unilateral tariffs on $370 billion worth of Chinese goods. Asked what Biden, declared winner of the Nov. 3 presidential election by the Electoral College on Monday, should do with the Phase 1 deal, Lighthizer said: “I would hold their feet to the fire on Phase 1.”
