Trade Representative Katherine Tai’s background as a daughter of Taiwanese immigrants shapes her approach to global trade policy

– Tools of the trade. When President Joe Biden took office in 2021, supporters praised him for assembling a historically diverse cabinet, including leaders who represented the U.S.’s Asian American and Pacific Islander community, like Ambassador Katherine Tai, U.S. Trade representative.

Tai leads U.S. Trade policy around the world, a job that taps her professional expertise as a litigator and trade policy expert as well as the unique perspective she brings through her personal history and heritage.

Tai is a “second-generation American and a second-generation public servant,” she said in an interview in honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, which celebrates its last day today. Her parents were born in mainland China and grew up in Taiwan. They raised her outside of Washington, D.C., where her parents both worked government jobs. Her mother is still a government employee at the National Institutes of Health.

Kevin Dietsch—Getty Images

That background shapes Tai’s experience in her role, where she guides U.S. Trade policy across the globe, from China to North America. Recently, Tai has made waves on U.S.-China and Taiwan trade policy. “I’m very used to translating—literally translating between languages,” she says. “But also translating concepts, translating assumptions, translating between cultures. I’m a third-culture kid, and that’s been a real asset. Lots of times I find myself having to translate how we approach trade, our economic viewpoints, our interests, and also our challenges.”

Those communication skills have come in handy at home, too, like when Tai recently responded to a Republican congressman who said she was “too nice” to do her job. “As a woman, and as a member of the AANHPI [Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander] community, there are a lot of assumptions that people put on you—or put on me,” she says. “At the end of the day, you have to show that you are yourself. You have to focus on how to be effective and doing your job.”

One thing that makes that easier is not being the only one. The number of AAPI women in the Biden administration is growing. In addition to Vice President Kamala Harris, Tai works alongside Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy Arati Prabhakar, and acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, who is awaiting Senate confirmation. “I’m very proud to serve with them,” she says.

Emma Hinchliffe
[email protected]
@_emmahinchliffe

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