Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto via AP
President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the Port of Baltimore, October 29, 2024.
In the waning days of a lame-duck administration, backroom deals sometimes get made that don’t bring credit on any of the parties. What’s odd and sad about this one is that it undermines Biden’s own agenda of ensuring fair play in trade for U.S. companies and workers.
The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) is an obscure but powerful tribunal that adjudicates complaints of foreign dumping, intellectual-property theft, and other assaults on what are supposed to be the rules of fair trade. By law, the panel must have three Republicans and three Democrats, who have term appointments of nine years.
Trade is one of those issues where ideology and partisanship don’t neatly align. Trump is more of a nationalist on trade than most Republicans, and Biden is more inclined toward using trade policy to defend domestic production than many corporate internationalist Democrats.
In late November, after having assured major players that no new ITC appointments would be made this year, the White House moved abruptly to fill two vacancies. This week, confirmation hearings were suddenly accelerated.
One of the nominees, Republican Halie Craig, is a former staffer to former Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA). Craig’s views are those of a corporate free-trader. The other, Democrat James Coughlan, is currently senior vice president of the Export-Import Bank.
Coughlan once had a mid-level staff job at the ITC. It’s not that his views on dumping and intellectual-property cases are terrible, but that they are not at all clear. The White House could have done better.
Coughlan just happens to be the husband of Sheila Nix, who has served as chief of staff to both Vice President Harris and first lady Jill Biden.
The fast track for these appointments came as a surprise to the trade officials on the National Security Council and other trade policy officials. If confirmed, they could tip the balance on the ITC in favor of a 4-2 majority of commissioners who are basically corporate internationalists unsympathetic to complaints of unfair trade practices, or to a 3-3 deadlock.
My reporting suggests that this was a deal between the White House, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, and Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR), who plans hearings next Wednesday, with buy-in from Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer. Wyden is a corporate free-trader who has often tangled with Biden officials.
Biden essentially traded a sweetheart appointment of a Democrat in exchange for a corporate free-trade Republican. This seems less an appointment on the merits than a going-away gift for Nix. (Couldn’t they have given her a gold watch instead?)
The Senate rules require three days to elapse between the hearing and the vote, to allow time for a nominee to respond to written questions. That would push the confirmation vote beyond next Friday’s Senate adjournment. But if Wyden could get a majority of his committee to go along, he could waive the rules.
In another corner of the trade galaxy, Biden will shortly use his executive power to block Nippon Steel’s takeover of U.S. Steel, an example of his consistent policy of promoting domestic companies and their workers. This action, which was announced months ago, will not make up for tipping the ITC in the wrong direction—a term majority that could last well into the next two administrations.
Most of Trump’s appointments are god-awful. With these dubious Biden appointments, the ITC is the rare case where the national interest would have been better served if the White House had let these vacancies go, to be filled by Trump.
The old saw is that it’s best not to look too closely at how the policy sausage is made. In this case, the sausage is putrid.
