Biden considers removal of Trump-era China tariffs to ease inflation
(2022/07/05)
- Reference: 1657027837
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/07/05/biden_mulls_removal_of_trumpera/
- Source link:
US president Joe Biden is debating whether to end or cut Trump-era tariffs imposed on Chinese imports into the United States, according to reports.
Introduced in [1]2018 during the Trump administration, [2]tariffs on more than $300 billion in imports from China — including products and components vital in consumer and business technologies — were inherited by the Biden administration.
According to [3]Bloomberg , president Biden and his cabinet have discussed the inflationary impact of these levies with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. The cabinet was looking at all of the possible ways to curb inflation and to provide some relief on cost of living for Americans, the report said.
[4]
However, industry leaders remain sceptical about whether a cut to tariffs would have a significant impact on US consumer inflation — recently hitting [5]a 40-year record — in the near term.
[6]
[7]
According to the Financial Times, Biden's cabinet is split over a politically fraught issue that could influence the November congressional midterm elections.
Although he began his term suggesting he was in no rush to remove the tariffs which were built up during the trade war with Beijing, the White House was debating whether lifting some tariffs would help provide some relief to US consumers.
[8]
But the [9]UK's pink business daily paper said deep divisions remain in the administration. On one side, Yellen backed removing tariffs to help calm inflation. But US trade representative Katherine Tai worried that in reducing tariffs, the US would lose its leverage over China in future negotiations.
[10]Asus GPU prices to tumble by up to 25% as US lifts tariffs
[11]US and China wave white flags, hit pause button on trade war
[12]China rallies support for Kylin Linux in war on Windows
[13]China is trolling rare-earth miners online and the Pentagon isn't happy
In March, [14]the US government said it would lift import tariffs on one specific category: graphics cards. On the back of [15]the move , manufacturer Asus promised the prices of some of its graphics cards would decline by up to 25 percent. The company cut prices on Nvidia's GeForce RTX 30-series graphic cards from April 1, including the RTX 3050, 3060, 3070, and high-end 3080 and RTX 3090 cards.
In 2019, [16]officials in China announced a preliminary agreement on phase one of negotiations with the United States. A statement from the US Trade Representative said the deal required China to make structural reforms and changes to intellectual property, technology transfer and financial services. China has also pledged to make sizeable agriculture and services purchases while the US agreed to significant changes to Section 301 tariffs.
The [17]statement at the time concluded: "The United States will be maintaining 25 percent tariffs on approximately $250 billion of Chinese imports, along with 7.5 percent tariffs on approximately $120 billion of Chinese imports." ®
Get our [18]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2018/03/23/trump_china_tariffs/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2018/09/18/us_china_tech_tariffs_200bn/
[3] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2022-07-04/biden-said-to-be-close-to-rollback-some-china-tariffs-video
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YsRgH4OfLIhgrYB2E6mMVgAAAEQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.ft.com/content/91b9c081-08dd-4426-90f6-f6fffb68dcec
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YsRgH4OfLIhgrYB2E6mMVgAAAEQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YsRgH4OfLIhgrYB2E6mMVgAAAEQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YsRgH4OfLIhgrYB2E6mMVgAAAEQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.ft.com/content/727bc14a-1095-4f91-b090-acad7510d67b
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/29/us_gpu_tariffs/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2019/12/13/china_us_pause_trade_war/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/03/china_openkylin/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/28/dod_china_dragonbridge/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/29/us_gpu_tariffs/
[15] https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/2022/march/ustr-issues-determination-reinstatement-certain-exclusions-china-section-301-tariffs
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2019/12/13/china_us_pause_trade_war/
[17] https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/2019/december/united-states-and-china-reach
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Introduced in [1]2018 during the Trump administration, [2]tariffs on more than $300 billion in imports from China — including products and components vital in consumer and business technologies — were inherited by the Biden administration.
According to [3]Bloomberg , president Biden and his cabinet have discussed the inflationary impact of these levies with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. The cabinet was looking at all of the possible ways to curb inflation and to provide some relief on cost of living for Americans, the report said.
[4]
However, industry leaders remain sceptical about whether a cut to tariffs would have a significant impact on US consumer inflation — recently hitting [5]a 40-year record — in the near term.
[6]
[7]
According to the Financial Times, Biden's cabinet is split over a politically fraught issue that could influence the November congressional midterm elections.
Although he began his term suggesting he was in no rush to remove the tariffs which were built up during the trade war with Beijing, the White House was debating whether lifting some tariffs would help provide some relief to US consumers.
[8]
But the [9]UK's pink business daily paper said deep divisions remain in the administration. On one side, Yellen backed removing tariffs to help calm inflation. But US trade representative Katherine Tai worried that in reducing tariffs, the US would lose its leverage over China in future negotiations.
[10]Asus GPU prices to tumble by up to 25% as US lifts tariffs
[11]US and China wave white flags, hit pause button on trade war
[12]China rallies support for Kylin Linux in war on Windows
[13]China is trolling rare-earth miners online and the Pentagon isn't happy
In March, [14]the US government said it would lift import tariffs on one specific category: graphics cards. On the back of [15]the move , manufacturer Asus promised the prices of some of its graphics cards would decline by up to 25 percent. The company cut prices on Nvidia's GeForce RTX 30-series graphic cards from April 1, including the RTX 3050, 3060, 3070, and high-end 3080 and RTX 3090 cards.
In 2019, [16]officials in China announced a preliminary agreement on phase one of negotiations with the United States. A statement from the US Trade Representative said the deal required China to make structural reforms and changes to intellectual property, technology transfer and financial services. China has also pledged to make sizeable agriculture and services purchases while the US agreed to significant changes to Section 301 tariffs.
The [17]statement at the time concluded: "The United States will be maintaining 25 percent tariffs on approximately $250 billion of Chinese imports, along with 7.5 percent tariffs on approximately $120 billion of Chinese imports." ®
Get our [18]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2018/03/23/trump_china_tariffs/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2018/09/18/us_china_tech_tariffs_200bn/
[3] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2022-07-04/biden-said-to-be-close-to-rollback-some-china-tariffs-video
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YsRgH4OfLIhgrYB2E6mMVgAAAEQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.ft.com/content/91b9c081-08dd-4426-90f6-f6fffb68dcec
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YsRgH4OfLIhgrYB2E6mMVgAAAEQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YsRgH4OfLIhgrYB2E6mMVgAAAEQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YsRgH4OfLIhgrYB2E6mMVgAAAEQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.ft.com/content/727bc14a-1095-4f91-b090-acad7510d67b
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/29/us_gpu_tariffs/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2019/12/13/china_us_pause_trade_war/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/03/china_openkylin/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/28/dod_china_dragonbridge/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/29/us_gpu_tariffs/
[15] https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/2022/march/ustr-issues-determination-reinstatement-certain-exclusions-china-section-301-tariffs
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2019/12/13/china_us_pause_trade_war/
[17] https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/2019/december/united-states-and-china-reach
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: "the US would lose its leverage"
martinusher
US trade, although significant, is quite a small part of the Chinese economy, the figure I saw quoted was 6%. This alters the balance of power significantly.
I suspect that those 'supply chain disruptions' we've been suffering from are not really about the myriad reasons we're told in our media (Covid, staff shortages and so on). They're teaching us a valuable lesson about cooperating in a global economy. We felt we could pour scorn on China and treat them like second class citizens, people who had to bow to our way of doing things or else, and they're giving us a lesson the limitations of power.
"the US would lose its leverage"
The mistake is thinking that you have leverage.
Xi Pooh couldn't care less about your leverage.
When you're importing 99% of what you use, you have no leverage.