President Biden is keeping the tariffs on Chinese imports put in place by his predecessor and 2024 opponent, former President Donald Trump. And he's adding new ones for things like electric vehicles.President Biden puts on a United Auto Workers t-shirt in Belvidere, Ill. on Nov. 9, 2023. Biden on Tuesday is announcing new tariffs on imports of Chinese goods, including electric vehicles.President Biden puts on a United Auto Workers t-shirt in Belvidere, Ill. on Nov. 9, 2023.
He will also keep in place the tariffs that former President Donald Trump had placed on more than $300 billion of imports from China.Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement that she raised concerns last month during a trip to Beijing about"artificially cheap Chinese imports," concerns that she said many other countries share. She said the new tariffs are necessary to protect American workers and companies from what could become a flood of unfairly traded products.
The move comes as Biden pushes forward to implement three pieces of legislation that contain hundreds of billions of subsidies to boost the domestic manufacturing and clean energy sectors — and ahead of a presidential election where trade and jobs will again be an issue. "We know China's unfair practices have harmed communities in Michigan and Pennsylvania and around the country that are now having the opportunity to come back due to President Biden's investment agenda," Lael Brainard, Biden's top economic adviser, told reporters.
The White House has tried to distinguish its strategy from Trump's approach. It points to comments made by Trump in rallies and interviews that he would broaden tariffs on all imported goods, includingThe White House has downplayed the risk that the new tariffs could spark retaliation from China, saying that the issues have been discussed during meetings of top U.S. and Chinese officials, and were unlikely to come as a surprise.