One of President-elect Biden’s close economic advisors laid out clear intent on Tuesday to rejoin the Paris climate accord and to seek cooperation with U.S. allies to confront China on a more coherent overall trade and tariff strategy than under President Trump.
Brian Deese, Biden’s director-designate on the National Economic Council, also boosted the primacy of science in reaching decisions to combat COVID-19 and fighting climate change. Significantly, he hinted at taking a strong approach to fixing the ailing U.S. economy in an interview during the all-digital CES 2021.
Deese served as an architect of the auto industry bailout in 2009 while serving as an advisor in the Obama administration. In Tuesday’s CES interview with CTA President Gary Shapiro, Deese said his experience in that bailout has convinced him in 2021 that “the risks of doing too little, of undershooting, far outweigh the risks of doing too much. We have to bring that approach into the White House and into governing.”
On the pandemic, he said: “We have this unique opportunity to restore science to our basic decision making in general, but also how we combat this virus. I want to be clear—this is going to be hard. Our operational challenge is to get vaccines into arms, and it will be one of the most complicated and costly challenges in our nation’s history.” He called for working with Congress to fund the distribution effort and for involving tech companies and participants in the supply chain.
He also urged tech companies to combat misinformation about the virus and vaccines and to improve broadband resources, calling a government partnership with the private sector “essential.”
On climate change, he said the Biden administration is committed to rejoining the Paris agreement after the Jan. 20 inaugural, but added, “just rejoining is not sufficient.” Shapiro mentioned that many U.S. companies are worried that China will continue to pollute while other countries and companies adhere to CO2 reductions under the Paris treaty, to which Deese responded, “I anticipate we will engage [China] directly on their climate commitments.”
Dealing with China on trade matters will require a steady, coherent approach, he said. “It’s clear that China is our most serious global competitor, and this competition will be one of the most central challenges of this century,” Deese said. The Biden vision for approaching this competition is to “rebuild our core areas of strength, invest domestically in secure supply chains, and use procurement dollars to build economic capability in the U.S. That will position us well.”
In addition, he reiterated Biden’s approach of “revitalizing alliances and partnerships around the world with a multilateral approach.” A Biden administration will “put pressure on Beijing when they are not obeying the rules,” he said. Tariffs will be seen as one tool in an overall strategy.
In recent years, there has been “a lack of coherent strategy” with tariffs that “doesn’t add up to helping U.S. companies,” Deese said. The overall Biden approach will be to “bring more coherence” on trade, Deese said.
To develop a tech workforce for the future, Deese described a “significant need for apprenticeships” and went so far as to urge partnerships with unions “that have overseen some of the best apprenticeship programs.” A holistic approach is needed, one that involves using community colleges to make training and education affordable, he said. “The U.S. can play an ongoing role in investing in the underlying driver of innovation,” Deese said.
Deese, 42, will be one of the youngest NEC directors. The position does not require Senate confirmation. During the last two years of the Trump administration, Larry Kudlow, a former CNBC contributor, has filled the NEC director role, after replacing Gary Cohn in 2018.
Deese has most recently worked as global head of sustainable investment strategy at BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world. During the Obama Administration, he served as an economic political advisor and was deputy director of the NEC as well as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget and acting director for two months in 2014.
Biden has called Deese an expert on climate issues. Under Obama, Deese played a central role in crafting the climate-change agreement reached in Paris in 2015. Trump pulled out the Paris agreement and Biden has repeatedly said he will reverse that move as one of his top priorities on taking office on Jan. 20. Biden has repeatedly promised $2 trillion over his four-year term to reduce carbon emissions and boost renewable energy used in generating electricity.
Deese worked on Obama’s 2008 campaign and joined the NEC when Obama was first elected. As deputy director he took a leading role in designing the bailout and reorganization of the U.S. auto industry. Later, he worked on climate change and energy policy for Obama. He was born in Massachusetts and received degrees from Middlebury College and Yale University Law School.
Shapiro wrapped up his interview by asking what Deese considers his biggest concern on taking up the role as NEC director. Deese responded:
“We are in middle of an economic crisis and it’s different than 2009 but it is having profound impacts and very unequal impacts for millions of Americans this month [who] are not sure how they are going to put food on the table and they are not sure when a moratorium on evictions or foreclosures expires. The choices and decisions that we make over the next couple of months will have profound impact not just on the shape of the top line economic trajectory but for millions of American families.
“Our animating focus is going to be on...how can we move quickly, deliberately, but with all of the collective force we can bring…to stem this crisis and build back better as well. One of the things that I took away from my experience in 2009 and I see squarely now is that the risks…of doing too little, of undershooting, far outweigh the risks of doing too much. We have to bring that approach into the White House and into governing. That’s going to be our principal challenge but also the principal opportunity as well.”