US President Joe Biden is pushing for tariffs to triple on Chinese steel and aluminum, as he seeks to boost union support in the swing state of Pennsylvania.
In a meeting with United Steelworkers union members in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, Biden will call on trade representative Katherine Tai to triple the tariff on the imports from the current average of 7.5 per cent.
Biden’s campaign is trying to shore up support among union workers ahead of November’s US presidential election, in which Pennsylvania could play a decisive role.
“It is important for us to get ahead of China’s new export surge and their continued pressure on prices that make it hard for American steel companies to compete,” said a senior US official, who added that the actions had “nothing to do with elections”.
Tai is nearing completion of a statutory review of the tariffs that former president Donald Trump levied in his trade war against China.
She is also set on Wednesday to unveil a probe into unfair practices in the Chinese shipbuilding industry, following a petition from United Steelworkers.
The US official argued that since imports of Chinese steel were “quite small” at 0.6 per cent of total US steel demand, there would be little impact on inflation, a key electoral concern for Biden.
“We must invest in American manufacturing, but we also have to protect those investments and those workers from unfair exports associated with China’s industrial overcapacity,” said White House national econ…
Read moreSo much for belief in free trade in the most capitalist country in the world.
Freedom is interpreted only as freedom for the US to do whatever it likes.
@BrainyFilibusterForward2wks2W
Free trade works perfectly in the absence of hostile state actors subsidizing the practice of dumping to destroy productive capacity in other nations.
@PuzzledFrogSocialist2wks2W
Capitalism was never about morals or ethics. It was supposed to be a superior system in terms of performance.
Now it turns out it was all BS since America is going full on dirigism and central planning, because otherwise the Chinese "cheat". They don't "cheat", they just use a different system that, it seems, has always been superior.
Socialism's always been superior, eh? Wow! You wouldn't have guessed it, what with the hundreds of millions of people slaughtered by Joseph Stalin, and the hundreds of million of people who starved to death in the USSR since without property rights, no one had any incentive to work! You sure wouldn't think it, when you consider that it has a proven track record of making everything worse and nothing better! My mind is blown, moral man that I am, with your wisdom and insight. Please go ahead and enlighten me some more!
Trade wars start real wars!
@AmusedDolphinPatriot2wks2W
CCP China is dumping its goods all over the world. Biden is right to propose this. Trump wants to slap a huge tariff on ALL China made stuff. And pretty soon Europe will as well or the few jobs they still have will be wiped out.
When you have a rogue state like China acting in bad faith 100% of the time, extreme measures are warranted
“We must invest in American manufacturing, but we also have to protect those investments and those workers from unfair exports associated with China’s industrial overcapacity,”
Next time when another country does it and on American imports / products, remember this America.
Don't peddle globalization when you are peddling protectionist policies for the last 4 years. You are breeding inefficiencies in your industries and one day it will go bust.
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
Should political goals influence trade policies, especially if it might affect international relationships?
@9LLV6PS2wks2W
There is just so much input on the new presidency.
We would struggle without help from others.
The whole notion that America is losing jobs due to insufficient tariffs is stupid. In a free trade, each side gives up one thing it wants less in return for something it wants more – both sides benefit. Otherwise, why would they trade at all? If there was a winner or a loser in international trade, why does the alleged "loser" continue trading? Because both sides are actually winners.
@PoliticPoultryPatriot2wks2W
When Trump brought in tariffs the Democrats squealed like hell. Now that Joe Biden is in charge times are wonderful as we march to the socialist economy of the new USA with I suspect Obama at the wheel, but in disguise.
Sec 232 which puts duties on China also includes India in the list of countries. I hope India does not suffer any collateral damage in this .
Will tripling tariffs on China actually help US workers, or just spark a trade war that hurts everyone?
@L3ftLeaningEliMountain2wks2W
It is not just about free trade. It is also about the American political system, its democracy, which can so easily produce two "geniuses', one following the other in succession, as the President of the US. And this is a genuinely very worrying thing.
And we are about to get another repeat performance – reappearance of one or the other of the earlier two - as if to prove the point that the system has gone fully rogue!
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
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