This is CBSI on the world.

I'm John Batchel with Gordon Chang at Gordon G. Chang.

Trade tariffs.

We welcome Alan Tonelson, our guide on trade, tariffs and manufacturing in America these many years.

He blogs at Reality Check.

We're looking at announcements made by the Trump

administration pending after inauguration day for trade representative. Howard Lutnik is named to be

Secretary of Commerce. Scott Bessent is named to be Treasury Secretary. But the role of trade representative is to deal with

the challenges of an American economy that competes, I'm told, with China and Europe simultaneously.

We're focusing now on China because of the bad acting these many years.

Alan, a very good day to you. The new trade

representative is a contemporary with Mr. Lighthouser who has stepped aside from the role from the

first term. What do we know about the new trade representative? What do we know about his relationship

with the Secretary of Commerce

designee, Howard Lutnik? Good day to you, Alan. Well, hi, John and hi Gordon. What we know about the new

trade representative, Jameson Greer, is really quite encouraging for those folks, like me, who do believe that it's high time to resume the very tough and very smart Trump trade policies regarding China.

He is a longtime protege of Trump's first trade representative Robert Leidheiser, who really wound up being much more

influential than folks in that position normally are, because he wound up being Trump's trade

guru. He was really the mastermind, as I see it, who set the whole strategy and who made sure that various trade and

tariff measures that were being talked about within the administration were put into effect

in just the right sequence with just the right over with just the right overarching goals.

So that's very encouraging.

...