on Tuesday unveiled steep tariff increases on an array of Chinese imports including electric vehicle batteries, computer chips and"American workers can out-work and out-compete anyone as long as the competition is fair, but for too long it hasn't been fair," Biden said during a speech in the White House Rose Garden before unions and companies. "We're not going to let China flood our market.
The United States imported $427 billion in goods from China in 2023 and exported $148 billion to the world's No. 2 economy, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, a trade gap that has persisted for decades and become an ever more sensitive subject in Washington.
Biden has struggled to convince voters of the efficacy of his economic policies despite a backdrop of low unemployment and above-trend economic growth. A Reuters/Ipsos poll last month showed Trump had aBiden has said he wants to win this era of competition with China but not to launch a trade war. He has worked in recent months to ease tensions in one-on-one talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.