New E.U. Trade Chief on a Quest to Fix Relations With the U.S.

“He is probably the right person for this moment,” Ms. Santos said.

But it’s unclear whether Mr. Hogan, who declined requests for an interview, will have any more success than Ms. Malmstrom at repairing the largest trade partnership in the world, worth $1 trillion a year.

His agenda includes meetings with Robert Lighthizer, the United States trade representative; Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary; and Wilbur Ross, the secretary of commerce. To varying degrees, all support the president’s hard line on trade relations.

On Tuesday, there was a sign that the United States and Europe were still capable of cooperating. Mr. Hogan, Mr. Lighthizer and Kajiyama Hiroshi, the Japanese minister of economy, trade and industry, said in a joint statement that they would work together to tighten international rules on government subsidies and forced transfer of technology.

The statement was clearly aimed at China, which is often accused of propping up its companies to give them an unfair advantage over foreign competitors, and of forcing foreign companies to share sensitive technology in return for permission to operate in China. The three countries also agreed to work together to reform the World Trade Organization, a key objective of the Europeans.

A 6-foot-5 former farmer from Kilkenny in southern Ireland, Mr. Hogan spent much of his political career in the trenches of Irish domestic politics, helping to build the centrist Fine Gael party into Ireland’s strongest bloc. He was Fine Gael’s director of organization in the early 2000s, and later head of the party’s national election campaign.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/13/business/EU-trade-commissioner-Phil-hogan.html?emc=rss&partner=rss