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BEIJING, June 15 (TMTPOST)— In order to address the top priority—to tame the inflation highest in 40 years,The Biden administration seems more positive on easing the Trump-era tariffs imposed on China.
Source: Visual China
In an interview with Axios released on Wednesday, Trade Representative Katherine Tai rebuffed reports of internal strife in the U.S. government but noted that tariffs remained "a part of the toolbox". As the only Asian American to serve in a Cabinet-level position, Tai said her background helps "filter out the noise". Tai also noted the Trade Representative"s office she led must address both near-term crises and long-term goals.
The reports Tai suggested obviously includes one from the Wall Street Journal, which last month cited sources that the U.S. Treasury and Commerce chiefs favored easing some of tariffs while Tai and other officials were reluctant to do so for fear of ceding leverage over China in efforts for reshaping the No.2 largest economy’s behavior. “With respect to the tariffs, our approach as with everything in this relationship, is to be strategic,” Tai said in an interview with Bloomberg three weeks ago, right after President Joe Biden mentioned he would review tariffs imposed by his predecessor Donald Trump.
Prior to Tai’s remark, the White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed the government was discussing possible changes to the “irresponsible” tariffs levied by Trump internally on Tuesday, when reports said Biden was soon to decide to lift some tariffs on Chinese imports. Calling some of existing tariffs raising costs for families and businesses, Jean-Pierre said the White House was “working to align these haphazard tariffs” and one of its priorities is to safeguard the interest of American workers.
At Wednesday’s press briefing, Jean-Pierre declined to disclose any details about the discussion of China tariffs, such as the hard timeline and the scope of the tariffs Biden is looking at. The President wants to ensure tariffs to meet needs of serving interests of the U.S. and its people, she said.
“No one will emerge as a winner in a trade war or tariff war,” Wang Wenbin, the spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry, commented the U.S.’s considering changing some of tariffs at Wednesday’s regular press conference. Wang reiterated the economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial for China and the United States. He urged the U.S. to lift all the additional tariffs imposed on China.
