U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, recently tapped by President Trump to lead U.S.-China trade negotiations, has a long history of skepticism toward Beijing.

The 71-year-old Mr. Lighthizer, a former steel-industry lawyer, has told colleagues he took the trade-representative job mainly to try to reorient China policy. In op-ed columns dating back to 1997, Mr. Lighthizer opposed China’s entry into the World Trade Organization under the terms being negotiated. Mr. Trump has called the WTO a “disaster for this country.”

He grew up in the Lake Erie port city of Ashtabula, Ohio, which was battered by imports. He sees himself as blue-collar even though he is a doctor’s son who once raced around West Virginia in sports cars.

As trade representative, he renegotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada, which has been Mr. Trump’s main accomplishment in the trade area.

The leaders of the three countries signed the Nafta successor, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, this past weekend in Buenos Aires, The trade ministers, including Mr. Lighthizer, signed accompanying legal documents afterward.