President-elect Donald Trump has nominated former U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Michigan, to serve as ambassador to Canada.
Hoekstra represented Michigan’s 2nd District for nearly two decades, from 1993 until 2011. During his tenure, he was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and in 2010, he was a founding member of the House Tea Party Caucus.
“Honored for the opportunity to serve,” Hoekstra said in a post to X. “Thank you, Mr. President!”
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During Trump’s first term, the Netherlands-born Hoekstra was the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands. He was elected chairman of the Michigan Republican Party earlier this year, and Trump endorsed Hoekstra over Kristina Karamo, who was removed as the party’s chair in January but fought the outcome.
The president-elect credited the former congressman with helping his campaign win the Wolverine State in this year’s election.
“Pete is well-respected in the Great State of Michigan – A State we won sizably,” Trump said in a statement.
Hoekstra could play a pivotal role if Trump makes good on a campaign promise to renegotiate the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The accord, which took effect on July 1, 2020, was a crowning achievement of Trump’s first term and replaced the North America Free Trade Agreement.
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While running for president in 2016, Trump routinely criticized NAFTA, which took effect on Jan. 1, 1994.
“I overhauled the disastrous NAFTA Agreement, the worst Trade Deal in the History of the United States, which was switched to the USMCA (Mexico/Canada), which no one thought could be done,” Trump added. “We brought Trade with Mexico and Canada to a level playing field for our wonderful Farmers and Working Families.”
Trump vowed that Hoekstra would help put America first, saying that the former congressman “did an outstanding job as United States Ambassador to the Netherlands during our first four years, and I am confident that he will continue to represent our Country well in this new role.”
The National Association of Manufacturers said it looked forward to working with Hoekstra.
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“We appreciate President Trump’s foresight in prioritizing the U.S.–Canadian relationship and negotiating the U.S.–Mexico–Canada Agreement, a trade deal that has been essential to the strength and success of manufacturing across North America,” Jay Timmons, the association’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “We look forward to working with former U.S. Ambassador and Congressman Pete Hoekstra as the next U.S. ambassador to Canada.
“The NAM has just concluded this year’s North American Manufacturing Conference in Ottawa, where the importance of the USMCA was a central theme among the business leaders, members of Parliament and key ministers who participated,” Timmons added. “In fact, a recent survey conducted with our partners in both countries found that 94% of manufacturers say that the USMCA is integral to their supply chains. We look forward to working with the incoming ambassador to strengthen ties among our North American allies to shore up supply chains and counter unfair practices from other nations like China.”
In Michigan, Hoekstra has worked to oppose plans from Gotion Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of a Chinese company that acknowledges ties to the Communist Party of China, to build an electric vehicle battery component plant near Big Rapids. In August, Hoekstra rallied against the company’s plan to construct the $2 billion plan in Green Charter Township as co-founder with former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Cella of the Michigan-China Economic and Security Review Group.
The state is giving the Gov. Gretchen Whitmer-supported plant $800 million in taxpayer-funded incentives.
“I’ve been fighting hard against the electric vehicle battery (component) plant in Big Rapids,” the Midland Daily News quoted Hoekstra as saying earlier this year. “I don’t like giving Chinese companies billions of our taxpayer dollars to strengthen their position in an emerging technology in transportation that is critical to America.”
Trump also opposes the Gotion plant, saying on Truth Social that it “would be very bad for the State and our Country” and “put Michiganders under the thumb of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing.”