(In April 16 story, corrects second paragraph to read “bipartisan support” not “partisan”)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden plans to nominate long-time Senate staffer Jayme White and former White House official Sarah Bianchi to serve as deputies to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, the White House said on Friday.
“Sarah Bianchi and Jayme White have the expertise USTR needs at a critical moment for the country, and the world,” Tai said in a statement, highlighting Bianchi’s breadth of experience on Capitol Hill, in the White House, and in the private sector, and White’s experience developing bipartisan support for trade policy.
White, currently the chief trade adviser for the Senate Finance Committee, has worked in the Senate on nearly every major trade issue and trade legislation for 20 years, the White House said in a statement.
“Jayme White has spent two decades working to ensure American trade policy empowers American workers and promotes a sustainable environment,” the statement said.
White grew up in Seattle, Washington, and his family members were union workers for Boeing Co, the largest U.S. exporter.
Bianchi, currently a senior managing director at the Evercore ISI investment banking advisory firm, held various positions during the administrations of former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Her roles included serving as then-Vice President Biden’s head of economic and domestic policy, where she coordinated policy initiatives on workforce competitiveness, manufacturing and budget negotiations.
Bianchi, who previously worked at asset manager BlackRock Inc, and served as head of global policy development at Airbnb Inc, also served as a senior adviser to the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware.
Biden and Tai have vowed to pursue a trade policy that focuses on workers’ rights, protection of the environment and human rights.
White worked closely with Tai to strengthen the U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement that took effect in July and add enforceable measures on labor and the environment.
Tai on Thursday vowed to rigorously enforce USMCA, saying it contained the most comprehensive environmental standards of any U.S. or global trade accord, although she acknowledged its failure to explicitly acknowledge climate change was a “glaring omission”.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden said Tai had nominated “two top-notch deputies” and said he would work to see both nominations move forward as soon as possible.
White served as a legislative adviser to former Representative Jim McDermott from 2000 to 2009 before joining Wyden’s office as legislative director, and moved into his current role as chief trade adviser in 2014.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal in WashingtonAdditional reporting by David Lawder in WashingtonEditing by Nick Zieminski and Matthew Lewis)
