Biden to Impose Tariffs on Chinese Goods: Sources

U.S. President Joe Biden is set to announce new China tariffs as soon as next week targeting strategic sectors including electric vehicles, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The White House and the office of the U.S. Trade Representative declined to comment. Trump’s broader imposition of tariffs during his 2017-2021 presidency prompted China’s retaliation with its own levies.

Biden has said he does not want a trade war with China even as he has said the countries have entered a new paradigm of competition.

In 2022, Biden launched a review of the Trump-era policy under Section 301 of the U.S. trade law.

The Biden administration has also been pressuring neighboring Mexico to prohibit China from selling its metal products to the United States indirectly from there.

China has said the tariff measures are counter-productive and inflict harm on the U.S. and global economy.

Biden’s Tariffs on Chinese Goods

Trade between countries has always had mishaps but trying to distort the market with tariffs has very little merit even when some think it’s the right thing to do. As President Biden’s administration unrolls its plans for international trade, in the background is still the cloud that is the US-China trade relationship. Biden’s relationship with China is cast with negativity, largely because of the outgoing administration. This negativity seems to stem directly from everything about Trump’s beliefs about China. On January 12, 2021, the USTR announced that it wasn’t willing to budge on tariffs against the Chinese.

Nor will Biden’s administration be lowering steel tariffs any time in the near future. If one were to speculate based on these current actions, it seems USTR will continue tariffs as a tool of U.S.A. foreign policy in the coming years. Then a Biden administration would certainly not be the best friend to the market or to a complete return to normal for the WTO as some hope.

China is a massive economic force to be reckoned with. Its recent response to a Biden campaign promise has the trade world quaking with anticipation. President Biden’s new tariffs on Chinese goods are a bold statement by the president to not only keep his promises to the people, but to signal to China that he’s not just the government in a new package.

There are no major studies that pinpoint what effect these tariffs might have on trade. Does Biden’s levying of tariffs distract from his belief that there should be a multilateral trade or should the tariffs be an implementation of that trade model?