US Senate confirms Trump trade chief Greer ahead of Canada, Mexico tariffs

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 US 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 US 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 per cent 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 countries that have higher import taxes than the United States does. In addition, Trump plans to remove the exemptions on his 2018 steel and aluminum tariffs, taxing imports of both metals at 25 per cent.

Economists warn that Trump's tariffs will raise prices and risk rekindling inflation while drawing retaliation from other countries.

Greer, a former Air Force lawyer, was chief of staff to Trump's first-term trade representative, Robert Lighthizer. In that position, Greer was involved in talks with China at a time when the world's two largest economies were hitting each other's products with tariffs in the biggest trade brawl since the 1930s.

Greer helped negotiate Trump's revamped North American trade pact, the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and worked with Democrats in Congress to get it approved. But many Democrats voted against Greer's nomination to protest what they see as Trump's belligerent and unpredictable approach to trade.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., called Greer admirably qualified for the job and said he hopes the Trump administration will prioritise the trade needs of America's farmers.

"I look forward to a close partnership between the administration and Congress in the coming months and years as we work to expand opportunities for American producers, Thune said.