Katherine Tai: Early Life and Education, Career, FAQs

Ambassador Katherine Tai serves as the 19th U.S. Trade Representative. Nominated by President Joe Biden in December 2020, Tai was confirmed by the Senate on March 17, 2021 and sworn into office on March 18, 2021.

Tai previously served as the chief trade counsel for the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means.

Early Life and Education

Katherine Chi Tai was born on March 8, 1974, in Connecticut. She earned a bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1996 and a Juris Doctor from Harvard University in 2001.

Before entering law school, Tai taught English at Sun Yat-sen University as a Yale-China Fellow from 1996 to 1998. As an attorney, Katherine Tai worked at several private law firms and clerked for the U.S. District Courts in the District of Columbia and the District of Maryland.

Government Service

Tai has spent most of her career in public service focusing on international economic diplomacy, monitoring, and enforcement.

In 2007, Tai joined the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) as associate general counsel. In 2011, she became chief counsel for China trade enforcement. In this role, she was responsible for litigating Washington's disputes against China at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

In 2014, Tai became trade counsel for the House Ways and Means Committee. Then, in 2017, she was promoted to chief trade counsel.

Tai played a pivotal role in shaping U.S. trade law, negotiations strategies, and bilateral and multilateral agreements, including the negotiations between congressional Democrats and the Trump administration over the renegotiated trade agreement with Mexico and Canada—known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)—which became effective on July 1, 2020.

U.S. Trade Representative

As a member of the President’s Cabinet, Tai is responsible for the development and coordination of U.S. international trade, commodity, and direct investment policy, in addition to overseeing trade negotiations. She also acts as the president's principal trade advisor, negotiator, and spokesperson on all issues related to international trade.

Since joining the Cabinet staff in 2021, Tai has engaged in trade debates, including those concerning China. At odds with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who has sought to cut many of these trade tariffs, Tai has advocated for a broader China trade strategy that addresses two different issues: protecting U.S. jobs and China's behavior in global markets. The Biden administration continues to debate the future of the high tariffs imposed on imports from China by former President Donald Trump. In December 2023, the discussion on raising tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles resumed.

In addition to her input on Chinese policies, Katherine Tai is the point person for the U.S.-Japan Trade Agreement (USJTA), which entered into force on January 1, 2020. The USJTA is intended to provide considerable market access for the U.S. by phasing out—or substantially reducing—many tariffs.

Kai's work also includes spearheading President Biden's Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), which is set to address 21st-century challenges in trade relationships related to technological innovation in the Indo-Pacific region. Partner countries include Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The Bottom Line

Ambassador Katherine Tai is the 19th U.S. Trade Representative; she was appointed by President Joe Biden. Formerly, Tai served as chief counsel at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and trade counsel for the House Ways and Means Committee.