Peter W. Navarro

Peter Navarro
Peter Navarro in the White House Oval Office in January 2017
Director of the National Trade Council
Incumbent
Assumed office January 20, 2017
President	Donald Trump
Preceded by	Position established
Personal details
Born	(1949-07-15) July 15, 1949 (age 67)
Political party	Democratic
Education	Tufts University (BA) Harvard University (MPA, PhD)

Peter Navarro (born July 15, 1949) is an American economist who currently serves as the Assistant to the President, Director of Trade and Industrial Policy, and the Director of the White House National Trade Council, a newly created entity in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government. A former professor of economics and public policy at the Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine, Navarro is the author of over a dozen books, including Death by China.

Navarro is known as a staunch critic of China and strong proponent of reducing U.S. trade deficits. He has accused Germany and China of currency manipulation. He has called for increasing the size of the American manufacturing sector, setting high tariffs, and repatriating global supply chains. He is a strong opponent of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. His views on trade are widely considered fringe and misguided by other economists.

Navarro's father, a saxophonist and clarinetist, led a house band, which played summers in New Hampshire and winters in Florida. His parents divorced when he was 9 or 10. Subsequently, he lived with his mother, a Saks Fifth Avenue secretary, in Palm Beach, Florida. He lived in Bethesda, Maryland, during his teenage years.

Navarro graduated from Tufts University in 1972 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He earned a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1979, and a PhD in Economics from Harvard in 1986. Shortly after graduation from Tufts, Navarro spent three years in the U.S. Peace Corps, serving in Thailand.