U.S. President Donald Trump speaks on both sides of U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who is in 2025 On February 13, 2019, an enforcement order for reciprocity tariffs was signed in Washington, USA.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
The Senate confirmed wealthy financier Howard Lutnick as Commerce Secretary on Tuesday, providing a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump’s tough trade police.
In the Department of Commerce, Lutnick, CEO of investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald, will oversee 50,000 employees, from collecting economic statistics to conducting census to issuing weather reports. But he might spend a lot of time – Jamieson Greer, Trump’s nominee Become the highest trade negotiator in the United States – an active plan to manage the president’s import tax on U.S. trading partners, including allies and rivals.
Sentae voted to confirm that Lutnick is 51-45.
Trump sees tariffs as a versatile economic tool. They can raise funds to raise funds for his tax cuts elsewhere, protecting the U.S. industry and other countries to make concessions to their own trade barriers, immigration and drug trafficking. Mainstream economists mainly believe that tariffs are counterproductive: They are paid by U.S. import companies that try to transfer higher costs to consumers, thereby increasing inflationary pressures across the economy.
Lutnick exited at last month’s confirmation hearing.
Trump announced plans for “mutual tariffs” last week – raising U.S. import tax rates to match the higher rates other countries imposed on the U.S. from the U.S. Breaks the rules governing world trade For decades. Since the 1960s, tariff rates have mainly come from negotiations between dozens of countries. Trump is directing the process.
The president also imposed 10% tariffs on Chinese imports and effectively increased U.S. taxes on foreign steel and aluminum. His threat – and delayed until March 4 – was 25% tariffs on goods on Canada and Mexico.
Lutnick was CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald when he was attacked in the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. The company lost two-thirds of its employees that day – 658 people, including Lutnik’s brother. Howard Lutnick led the company’s rehabilitation and is a member of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum Board.
Lutnick has committed to selling shares in his business. They are complex. his Financial Disclosure Statement It shows that he holds positions in more than 800 businesses and other private organizations.
