Senate confirms Jamieson Greer to be Trump’s top trade negotiator as battles loom WSOC TV [Video]

WASHINGTON — (AP) — The Senate has confirmed Jamieson Greer, a veteran of President Donald Trump’s first-term economic battles with China, Mexico and Canada, to be America’s top trade negotiator.

As U.S. trade representative, Greer will work with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a billionaire financier, to oversee Trump’s aggressive trade agenda. Greer’s nomination cleared the Senate by a 56-43 vote on Wednesday.

Trump is an enthusiastic supporter of taxes — tariffs — on foreign imports in an effort to protect U.S. industry, raise revenue for the Treasury and coerce other countries into making concessions on issues ranging from trade to tax policy to immigration.

The Republican president is planning to start taxing Canadian and Mexican imports at 25% on March 4, a move that will disrupt North American commerce and blow up a 2020 trade deal that Trump himself negotiated. He also intends to impose “reciprocal” tariffs on foreign countriesthat have higher import taxes than the United States does. In addition, Trump plans to remove the exemptions …