Both the U.S. and China are likely to choose new senior trade leaders this month, Keith Bradsher reports for the New York Times.

Commerce Minister Chen Deming lost his seat during the Communist Party Congress, which ended last Wednesday, meaning he will have to leave his post during the National People’s Congress in March.

Ron Kirk, the U.S. trade representative, is expected to leave at the end of President Barack Obama’s first term, the report said.

The two leading candidates to become China’s commerce minister are Gao Hucheng, Chen’s deputy at the Commerce Ministry, and Tianjin Mayor Huang Xingguo.

Huang’s boss is Zhang Gaoli, party secretary in Tianjin, who became one of the seven members of the country’s ruling Politburo Standing Committee Thursday.

According to Bradsher’s report, Zhang is expected to become the executive vice premier of day-to-day economic policy at the National People’s Congress in March.