Meet the Key Trump Trade Adviser You’ve Probably Never Heard Of
Meet Trump's Key Trade Adviser You've Probably Never Heard of
(Bloomberg) -- When the U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization, Dennis Shea, showed up to his first meeting in May, he excoriated his Chinese counterpart in the normally staid bureaucratic hall, saying he had “entered the realm of Alice in Wonderland -- white is black, up is down.”
Attendees were stunned by Shea’s rebuke, with a WTO spokesman describing the exchange with China’s ambassador, Zhang Xiangchen, as “extraordinary in its intensity.” But the moment underscored President Donald Trump’s priorities, his administration’s unorthodox means of achieving its goals and his effectiveness at using an obscure organization in Geneva to shake up the international order.
And while the WTO isn’t widely known, it oversees the rules for nearly $20 trillion in trade every year and plays an integral role in the U.S. effort to strong-arm China into ending policies Trump says are unfair to American businesses and that have led to Beijing’s almost $300 billion trade surplus with the U.S. this year.
“The biggest challenge is dealing with China, whose non-market economy is simply incompatible with WTO norms,” Shea said in an interview. “Without a major overhaul, the WTO risks losing the support of the American people.”
Jungle Law
Trump has called the WTO the “single worst trade deal ever made.” And while he would need congressional approval to follow through on a threat to leave, he’s already set in motion measures that could paralyze the organization’s ability to arbitrate disputes by next year.
American tactics against the WTO have already borne fruit -- leaders at the annual Group of 20 meeting agreed for the first time to push for reform of the organization -- which has led to concern that a Machiavellian approach to commerce could herald a downturn for both markets and consumers.
“The worst-case scenario for the global economy, for the consumer, for everyone on the surface of the Earth, is to have no rules, to have the law of the jungle,” WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo said this summer. “Investors will pull back, the economy will lose steam and jobs will be lost -- millions of jobs will be lost.”
China Focus
Shea, 57, has focused on China, which he says has been taking advantage of the U.S. and other WTO members. He’s accused Beijing of stealing American technologies, subsidizing industries to the detriment of others and of selling its products in other markets at illegally low prices. He’s also been finding allies such as the European Union and Japan, though China continues to deny any wrongdoing vigorously.
“China, the world’s largest exporter and an economic heavyweight, insists on being treated in the WTO like a much poorer member while maintaining a regime that is fundamentally incompatible with the rules and principles of this organization,” Shea said during the U.S. trade policy review in Geneva this month.
Shea developed his aggressive approach through a decades-long relationship with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, the man Trump has entrusted to carry out his “America First” agenda.
‘Perfect Fit’
“For Bob Lighthizer, having Dennis Shea as his deputy in Geneva is the perfect fit,” said Greg Gross, who worked with Shea and Lighthizer when they were all part of Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign. “He knows well how effective and focused Dennis is and also how diplomatic he can be.”
Shea’s most relevant experience to his current role came during the 11 years he spent as a member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which investigates national security and trade issues. As the top Republican on the commission, Shea co-authored 10 reports to Congress that identified ways China was violating its WTO commitments.
That deep understanding of China’s impact on the U.S. led Lighthizer to tap Shea as part of his USTR team with a conspicuously uniform drive to contain China’s economic rise.
“Dennis isn’t a bomb-throwing radical,” said the current vice chairman of the commission, Carolyn Bartholomew. “He’s aware of the way that WTO rules have not been able to respond effectively to China’s trade abuses.”
--With assistance from Shawn Donnan.
To contact the reporter on this story: Bryce Baschuk in Geneva at bbaschuk2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Richard Bravo, Sarah McGregor
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