President-elect Donald Trump envisions administration roles for multiple senior trade officials from his first term, but so far, his former U.S. Trade Representative and trade policy architect Robert Lighthizer has not been among them — a move some who worked closely with Lighthizer say could hamper trade policymaking.
Former Mexican Secretary of Economy Ildefonso Guajardo told Agri-Pulse last week that Lighthizer was “very savvy” in his dealings with other cabinet members and Trump administration officials. “That allowed him to be a very powerful man to drive things within the U.S. government, and you need that,” Guajardo said.
Guajardo represented the Mexican government in negotiations on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, working alongside Lighthizer on the deal.
“I never thought that I was going to say these words: We’re going to miss Robert Lighthizer — a lot,” Guajardo told a panel hosted by the United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce.
Former Mexican Secretary of Economy Ildefonso Guajardo
The USMCA comes up for review in 2026, after which parties must approve the deal’s renewal to avoid its expiration in 2036. That process, Guajardo stressed, would benefit from having somebody intricately involved in the initial negotiations who knows what was discussed and what documents were signed.
“It is a very important part of what is coming,” Guajardo said.
Trump’s USTR pick, Jamieson Greer, was Lighthizer’s chief of staff at USTR, and, according to Guajardo, sat in on many of the USMCA negotiations.
“He was with him all the time,” Guajardo said, calling Greer’s nomination to a senior trade role “good news.” But Guajardo said that ambiguities around who will be responsible for U.S. trade policy, as well as the return of Peter Navarro to a senior trade role, are cause for concern.
“Bob was extremely skillful to really take control of that process, at not allowing other individuals that didn't have enough training, knowledge and expertise to really get their hands in the process of trade policy in the U.S.,” Guajardo said during the panel, adding that it wasn’t clear who in the next administration would have the final word on trade policy.
In a statement announcing Trump's pick for Commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, for example, the administration said Lutnick would have “direct responsibility” for USTR and lead the administration’s trade agenda.
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In comments to Agri-Pulse after the panel, Guajardo called Navarro’s return as a top trade adviser “worrisome.” Navarro was one of the fiercest proponents of tariffs in Trump’s first term and reportedly sparred with Wall Street figures like Steve Mnuchin over how aggressively to target China.
“I'm not with the Mexican government,” Guajardo said, but “probably they are quite frightened by it.”
Lighthizer was also adept at using his knowledge of Washington to advance USMCA negotiations, a former Senate Finance staffer told Agri-Pulse.
“If you take a look back at the USMCA process, he kind of bypassed the staff all the time by going directly to members of Congress. He brags about cutting out the lobbyists from the autos negotiations in his book, and that's when they really made breakthroughs,” the staffer said, referring to Lighthizer's 2023 book "No Trade is Free."
Multiple Democratic lawmakers and staffers on Capitol Hill also praised Lighthizer’s efforts to collaborate across the political aisle during Trump’s first term, and expressed hope that Greer would adopt a similar approach.
A former Democratic staffer told Agri-Pulse this week that the former USTR was “incredibly good” at communicating with lawmakers from both parties.
“I think they will have learned that lesson. They will know that's important,” the staffer said of the second Trump administration. But the staffer added that how Greer works with other cabinet picks and what interagency process emerges around trade policymaking is “the thing to watch.”
Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., sit on the Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees, respectively – the two panels responsible for shaping trade legislation. Both described strong working relationships with Lighthizer.
“I worked well with him,” Cortez Masto said on Thursday. “He was very responsive to my questions.”
Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va.Similarly, Beyer told Agri-Pulse that the former USTR worked effectively with Democrats to shepherd USMCA through Congress.
“Ambassador Lighthizer is too protectionist,” Beyer said, but “he did work very well with us, especially with Katherine Tai, who was our lead trade counsel.” Tai went on to serve as USTR under the Biden administration.
Neither said they had any dealings with Greer as his chief of staff.
In comments to reporters early last week, Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden expressed surprise at Lighthizer’s omission. “It certainly strikes me as a bit unusual,” he said.
With Republicans set to control both chambers of Congress next year, the administration may not need to seek trade legislation that requires bipartisan support. But a former Senate Finance staffer pointed out that, if the administration wants to embark on trade agreement negotiations but doesn’t want to have Congress weigh in on negotiating objectives in exchange for expedited congressional approval, it will need some Democrats to secure the required 60 Senate votes.
“I think Lighthizer would be a big asset there,” the former Senate Finance staffer said. Greer, the staffer said, is well-liked but lacks the profile that Lighthizer commanded.
The staffer added that Greer “could easily follow in those footsteps and make those inroads over the next couple of years.”
Not all Democrats, however, recall working with Lighthizer on the USMCA as a particularly smooth process.
It “took a big push from us to get Lighthizer to do the right thing on the USMCA,” Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who is on the Finance Committee, told Agri-Pulse. “He was communicative,” Brown added, and “he finally did most of what he should have done, but it took a lot of pressure.”
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