TWITTER TEEMING OVER TAI’S TAKEDOWN: U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai’s appearance before the House Ways and Means Committee on Friday was replete with fiery exchanges amid criticism of the Biden administration’s trade agenda. But none captured the internet’s attention so much as her back-and-forth with North Carolina Republican Rep. Greg Murphy. It began with Murphy’s backhanded compliment that Tai was “too nice” for her job. When Tai politely protested that she has “never been faulted for being too nice,” Murphy doubled down that Tai “had too nice a smile.” He continued: "I feel sorry for you. I feel like you've been put in a tough spot, personally, because this administration above you has just shown no interest in trade." At that point, the nation’s chief trade ambassador was no longer smiling. "Well, let me just take off the nice a little bit. I don't need your pity,” responded Tai, who was the panel’s top Democratic trade attorney before joining the administration. “I stand up for the American people. And when I speak, people listen, because I represent the interests of the United States.” Internet atwitter: A C-SPAN clip of the exchange racked up nearly a half-million views just on Twitter over the weekend. One commenter called Tai “my new hero” while others described her response as “beast mode” and “queen level stuff.” One GIF appeared to compare her to champion boxer Muhammad Ali. Tai’s comeback especially resonated with female leaders, who frequently find their personalities subject to greater scrutiny than their male counterparts. The Democratic Women’s Caucus summed up the sentiment in a tweet: “If we had a nickel for every time a woman in a position of power was told she was ‘too nice’ to get the job done…” It was punctuated with an eye roll emoji. And lawmakers came to her defense. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) called Murphy’s comments “sexist and absurd” while praising Tai as “a brilliant, savvy and superb negotiator.” Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) said referring to Asian women as too nice “reeks of stereotypes” and commended the “compassion and expertise” Tai brings to her role. Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) tweeted “no one is a tougher and more capable negotiator.” MORE MOMENTS FROM THE HEARING: Tai told members of the committee that lawmakers urging her office to return to negotiating traditional free trade agreements — a recurring request from a number of Republicans and Democrats — needed to wake up to the realities of the new economic order. “Meet me with the recognition around the kind of world we're living in right now: where we are as an economy, where we are strong, where we are vulnerable,” Tai told Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.). “Meet me on the terms that we need to do things differently.” Tai added that not every aspect of trade policy needs to be done differently, but reiterated that the government approach must adapt “to the reality that we live in.” She also signaled an openness to traditional free trade agreements without offering an exact timeline or specific criteria for getting back to them. She assured Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa) that “there's no allergy to pushing on our partners to reduce their barriers,” for instance, but said that aggressively cutting tariffs across the economy “has led to a lot of the vulnerabilities that we’re facing today.” If tariff liberalization can be leveraged to promote “resilience, sustainability and inclusiveness” in the global economy, “I am all for it,” she said. Digital discourse: Tai told the committee that global rules around digital trade are out of date but that efforts to advance them through negotiations like the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework are inhibited by the fact that Congress has yet to enact its own regulations, particularly on topics like data privacy. “Our ability as negotiators to take forward steps is going to be impacted by and really limited by how far you as legislators have been able to go in terms of establishing regulatory frameworks that are critical to the digital economy,” Tai told Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.). “Without that legislation here in the United States, there's really a limit to how much we can do in these negotiations, because we've got to leave room for all of you to make that decision first,” she added. Her remarks will be welcomed by progressive lawmakers and advocates who have raised concerns about major tech companies trying to influence the terms of trade deals to their advantage. Digital trade “has to reflect more than just the interests of our biggest stakeholders in this area,” Tai also said. Hill action to watch: Tai told Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.), a member of the House select committee on competition between the U.S. and China, that she is “looking for an opportunity to come up to brief that committee and to get to know all of you better to talk about some of the economic pieces of this.” TRACKING TRADE OFFICIALS’ TRAVEL: Tai will be en route to Seoul on Tuesday to lead a U.S. delegation to South Korea, one of the five countries co-hosting this week’s second-ever Summit for Democracy. Her agenda includes remarks at an Indo-Pacific Regional Anti-Corruption Meeting, as well as huddles with Minister for Trade Ahn Dukgeun and Minister of Employment and Labor Lee Jung Sik to discuss the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s visit to Washington next month. TREASURY GUIDANCE BYPASSES EU DISPUTE FOR NOW: The Treasury Department will release much-awaited guidance this week on its plans to implement a tax credit for electric vehicles made in North America. But it’s not expected to reflect recent progress in the negotiations between the Biden administration and European Union in their dispute over the subsidies, POLITICO’s Zack Colman reports. The Biden administration may allow European companies to share in the taxpayer subsidies, but no such concessions will be included in the proposed guidance, a senior administration official told POLITICO. However, that could change as the trade partners move toward an expected agreement on sharing and securing their supply chains for critical minerals. As POLITICO’s Doug Palmer previously reported, the decision to launch those deliberations was finalized during a recent White House meeting between Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The Biden administration is expected to consider that deal a “free trade agreement” and thus open the door for EU automakers to access some Inflation Reduction Act perks. Congressional conundrum: The agreement was the subject of several questions during Tai’s Capitol Hill hearings last week. Some lawmakers want to know how the deal would qualify as a “free trade agreement” if it doesn’t contain market access provisions typically found in such pacts. Others want to know why it wouldn’t be subject to lawmakers' approval like other free trade agreements. That congressional-executive rift may come down to lower-case letters. “Free trade agreement” is not capitalized in the Inflation Reduction Act, allowing for an argument that Congress was not referring to upper-case Free Trade Agreements. Sounds like a grammatical fight that could make some lawyers very rich. CANADIAN CRITICAL MINERALS DEAL IN THE WORKS: Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged a joint effort to develop critical mineral resources that are needed to reduce reliance on China for a key raw material used in electric vehicles and other clean technology products. "I believe we have an incredible opportunity to work together so Canada and the United States can source and supply here in North America everything we need for reliable and resilient supply chains," Biden said in a speech to the Canadian Parliament on Friday. Economic dependence on the minerals is forecast to increase sharply in coming years as the United States and other countries make a hard pivot toward reducing carbon emissions. Without an alternative, there is concern that China could cut off Western customers just as their demand for critical minerals is ramping up. The leaders, in a joint statement, announced the creation of a new high-level Energy Transformation Task Force to accelerate cooperation on strengthening renewable energy and electric vehicle supply chains, as well as critical minerals and rare earths and "other areas that advance our collective energy security."
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