The top legal adviser to Robert Lighthizer, the US trade representative, is leaving the Trump administration at a delicate moment in the negotiations to resolve Washington’s trade dispute with China.
Stephen Vaughn, the general counsel at USTR, will be replaced by Joseph Barloon, a lawyer at Skadden Arps, in the role in the coming weeks, Mr Lighthizer said in a statement which did not offer any specific reason for the change.
Mr Lighthizer called Mr Vaughn a “principled leader, a trusted adviser, and an expert attorney” who had “played a central role in shaping and implementing the President’s trade policies, especially related to China and the World Trade Organization”.