United States President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Jamieson Greer and Kevin Hassett, two veterans of his first administration, as his trade representative and top economic adviser, respectively.

Greer played a key role in prosecuting Trump’s trade war with China as chief of staff to former US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer during the former president’s first term.

“Jamieson will focus the Office of the US Trade Representative on reining in the country’s massive trade deficit, defending American manufacturing, agriculture, and services, and opening up export markets everywhere,” Trump said in a statement on Tuesday.

If confirmed by the US Senate, Greer, who left government to become a partner at law firm King & Spalding, would be responsible for leading negotiations on trade with foreign governments and international bodies such as the World Trade Organization.

In an interview with The New York Times in June, Greer said that Trump officials viewed tariffs as a way of “remediating” unfair trade practices by China and other countries.

“If you level out that playing field, it makes it so that Americans don’t have to compete unfairly,” he said.

Trump said that Hasset, known as a strong advocate of tax cuts, would play an “important role in helping American families recover from the inflation that was unleashed by the Biden administration” as director of the White House National Economic Council.

Hassett, the former chair of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, does not require Senate confirmation.

“Together, we will renew and improve our record tax cuts, and ensure that we have fair Trade with countries that have taken advantage of the United States in the past,” Trump said.

Trump’s latest picks for his incoming administration come a day after the president-elect pledged to slap a 25 percent tariff on all goods from Mexico and Canada and an “additional” 10 percent tariff on Chinese products in response to irregular border crossings and drug trafficking.

Economists widely agree that broad-based tariffs would raise the cost of everyday items in the US and dampen global growth.

Trump’s supporters and allies say that tariffs will bring back manufacturing jobs from overseas and give Washington greater leverage to negotiate more favourable trade deals with other countries.