Trump's pick for trade adviser highlights focus on tariffs, conventional energy

US President-elect Donald Trump said Dec. 4 that he will appoint economist Peter Navarro as senior counselor for trade and manufacturing.

Navarro, who supports fossil fuels and trade protectionism, served in Trump's first administration. As a senior counselor to Trump's next administration, he will seek to help Trump roll back environmental regulations and ratchet up oil production. But his primary job will be to support Trump's approach to trade policy.

"America is the world's unfair trade patsy," Navarro wrote in an Oct. 1 opinion piece for The Washington Times, adding that the country has "lower tariffs and trade barriers than any of our major trading partners."

"Our second-largest trading partner, Mexico, is regularly breaking the rules of the North American Free Trade Agreement replacement that former President Donald Trump negotiated but which the Biden-Harris administration does not enforce," Navarro wrote in the op-ed. "Our largest partner, China, breaks every rule in the World Trade Organization book."

Navarro has flagged nontariff barriers to American automobile production in Japan and value-added taxes in Germany and the European Union that disfavor American products.

In a Nov. 26 post on his website, Navarro said Trump could tackle inflation through energy policy by dramatically increasing oil and gas drilling on public lands and offshore areas, rolling back environmental regulations, reversing the Biden administration pause on liquefied natural gas exports and abandoning the Paris climate accords again.

He also suggested that the Trump administration would try to reboot the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project, reverse oil drilling restrictions in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and repeal incentives to adopt electric vehicles.

"Clearly, the road to price stability — and a return to American strategic energy dominance — runs through the oil fields of states like Alaska, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas and the fracking wells of states like Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Texas," Navarro wrote.

"Trump tariffs" would be key to boosting sustainable GDP growth for the US, Navarro said in the Oct. 1 op-ed. He dismissed the idea that such tariffs would raise prices; he believes trading partners rely too much on the US to pass on all of the costs.

Navarro, a longtime critic of China's trade policies, will likely play a vital role in advancing protectionist trade policies that many industry observers believe will raise commodity prices, while trying to offset those impacts with increased domestic production.

Navarro's views dovetail with those of the president-elect. Trump has been busy with tariff talk, targeting Canada, Mexico, China and the broader set of developing BRICS nations.

"During my first term, few were more effective or tenacious than Peter in enforcing my two sacred rules, Buy American, Hire American," Trump wrote on Truth Social on Dec. 4. "His mission will be to help successfully advance and communicate the Trump manufacturing, tariff, and trade agendas."

Trump on Nov. 25 threatened to implement 25% tariffs on imports from top US trade allies Canada and Mexico. He also proposed an additional 10% tariff on imports from China. Most recently, Trump suggested imposing 100% tariffs on the BRICS countries, including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, if they proceed with plans to establish a common currency aiming to compete with the US dollar.

Some industries have supported such tariffs, such as beleaguered steel manufacturers that say inexpensive imports threaten domestic production. Others worry that the tariffs will drive up prices. The US is heavily dependent on other countries for some metals and mining products, for example, and manufacturers could pass those prices on to consumers. The tariffs could also increase the price of refined oil products.

American manufacturers backed the choice of Navarro soon after Trump announced Navarro's position within the incoming administration.

"Peter Navarro is committed to growing manufacturing in America," Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), said in a Dec. 4 post on social media site X. "NAM worked closely with him during the pandemic to keep our manufacturing economy open, and we look forward to working with him in this new role to make America stronger."

Navarro held a similar position in the first Trump administration, serving as lead of a group called the National Trade Council, which later became the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy. During Trump's first term, Navarro helped renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement while speedily moving along tariff and trade actions, Trump said in the Dec. 4 post on Truth Social.

Navarro was incarcerated for four months after being found guilty of contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a US House committee investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.