The US Senate committee will hold a hearing on Trump’s trade nominee on January 29. Reuters writes
By David Shepardson and Lananh Nguyen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Senate Commerce Committee said on Wednesday it would hold a Jan. 29 hearing on President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Commerce Department, an agency that has become a key U.S. tool in efforts to curb China’s technology sector.
Trump has tapped Wall Street executive Howard Lutnick to lead the department and its trade and tariff strategy. The head of brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald, Lutnick will also have “additional direct responsibility” for the office of the US Trade Representative, Trump said last year.
Lutnick also runs the BGC Group brokerage and is chairman The Newmark Group (NASDAQ:), a commercial real estate services company and FMX, a platform owned by some of Wall Street’s largest banks and traders.
In a document seen by Reuters, Lutnick said that if confirmed, he would resign from his positions at Cantor, BGC and Newmark and sell assets, including his stakes in those entities.
Lutnick, who is worth $1.5 billion according to Forbes, also filed an extensive financial disclosure form detailing his holdings.
The Commerce Department oversees a wide range of functions with nearly 47,000 employees, from the U.S. Census Bureau to weather forecasting, ocean navigation and investment promotion.
Trade authorities over export controls on sensitive US technologies have put it at the center of trade conflicts with China, as well as investigations into anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases that often result in punitive tariffs to protect domestic industries.
Fearing that Beijing could use American technology as a weapon to bolster its military, both the Trump and Biden administrations have aggressively used Commerce Department authorities to impose regulations to stem the flow of American and foreign technology to China — with a particular focus on semiconductors and equipment that used to produce them.
Over the past two years, the US has issued sweeping controls on exports of advanced chips and chip-making equipment to China, which have limited its access to cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips and equipment needed to produce the next generation of semiconductors.
In the final days of Biden’s term, Commerce further restricted exports of AI chips and technology, finalized rules that effectively ban nearly all Chinese cars and trucks from the U.S. market, and said Trump should consider banning all Chinese drones. Trump this week rescinded an executive order on artificial intelligence security that Biden signed in 2023.
