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United States President-elect Joe Biden is set to introduce the Governor of Rhode Island, the Mayor of Boston and a small business advocate from California as the new members of his economic team.
Biden announced Thursday that Governor Gina Raimondo had chosen to become secretary of commerce, Mayor Marty Walsh as a candidate for the post of secretary of labor and Isabel Guzman as his choice to lead the Small Business Administration.
One of Biden’s main challenges after taking office on January 20 will be healing an economy reeling from the coronavirus pandemic. He said the new members of his economic team will help achieve this goal “by building an economy in which all Americans agree.”
“They share my belief that the middle class built this country and unions built the middle class,” said Biden, who planned to present Raimondo, Walsh, Guzman and a fourth candidate at an event Friday in Wilmington, Delaware.
With the picks, which require Senate confirmation, Biden has moved closer to building a cabinet he has promised to be the most diverse in history. He has yet to nominate a candidate for the post of director of the CIA.
Raimondo, 49, is a former venture capitalist who is serving her second term as governor of Rhode Island after serving as state treasurer. A Democrat, she had been mentioned as a possible candidate for Biden’s health secretary, but said last month she would stay in Rhode Island and continue to focus on the coronavirus pandemic.
As Secretary of Commerce, Raimondo would help shape the Biden administration’s trade policy and promote growth opportunities for the United States at home and abroad.
“Rhode Island may be small, but our economy is strong thanks to our small businesses and innovative technologies,” Raimondo tweeted Thursday evening. She pledged that as Secretary of Commerce, she “would harness the same American ingenuity to create well-paying union jobs and rebuild our economy better than ever.”
The Biden administration’s stance on international trade is likely to mark a significant shift from President Donald Trump’s approach to high tariffs. Trump has slapped tariffs on Chinese steel and other goods to punish Beijing for what the administration has called unfair exchange practices and potential threats to national security. These measures were widely opposed by American allies, including Canada.
Biden opposes Chinese tariffs and has vowed to improve U.S. relations with countries in the hemisphere and globally. But he did not indicate that canceling tariffs would be a top priority.
Instead, Biden pledged to oversee an aggressive “Buy American” campaign that would use federal funds to buy $ 400 billion in US-made goods and spend an additional $ 300 billion on research and development from companies. national technologies.
Walsh, 53, has been mayor of Boston since 2014. When the Democrat was sworn in in 2018 for his second term, Biden presided over the inauguration. Walsh served as a state representative for over a decade before becoming mayor.
He also has a long history with unions, formerly president of Workers’ Local 223 and leader of the Boston Building Trades – an umbrella labor organization.
The son of Irish immigrants, Walsh grew up in Boston’s working-class neighborhood of Dorchester. He survived a childhood battle with cancer and was open about his early struggles with alcohol, using his history of drug addiction to encourage people to seek help.
He opened his speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention by saying, “Good evening. My name is Marty Walsh and I am an alcoholic.
Walsh on Thursday pledged as a labor secretary to work as hard for workers and those trying to enter the middle class “as you do for your families and your livelihood.” You have my word.”
Leaders of the International Union of Service Employees and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), two large organized labor groups, supported Walsh’s selection.
To head the Small Business Administration (SBA), Biden said he chose Isabel Guzman, director of the Small Business Advocate’s California office in the California governor’s Office of Economic and Business Development.
Guzman played a role in the state’s economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic. She is a former senior advisor and deputy chief of staff to the SBA, the federal agency she was commissioned to lead, and was an advisor to the first chartered investment bank in California and trained in Latin America to create. in Los Angeles for over 35 years.
Biden also asked Don Graves, one of his longtime advisers, to be the assistant secretary of commerce.
Last month, the President-elect appointed senior officials of his economic team, including former Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen, as Treasury Secretary – the first woman to hold the post if confirmed by the Senate.
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