President Joe Biden is “very cautious” about making a move on the Trump-era tariffs on China and is still assessing his options, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Wednesday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) visit to Taiwan has made geopolitics with China “particularly complicated” as Biden weighs the future of tariffs on more than $300 billion in goods from the U.S. rival, according to Raimondo. “Certainly, it has made it a little more challenging,” Gina Raimondo said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Balance of Power with David Westin” on Wednesday. “It’s harder, but I am hopeful that we will get beyond that and get back to a place where we can have more of those discussions… “But I know he’s looking at it. We’ve talked about it again recently, and I expect he’ll be making a decision before too long.”
Meanwhile, labor unions will continue to have “substantive input” into the Biden administration’s trade policies, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai told the United Steelworkers’ annual convention in Las Vegas. She said the administration is going to take new initiatives against China’s unfair trade and economic practices. That said, there was no specific mention about whether Washington will eliminate tariffs on some Chinese imports. But sources have told Reuters U.S. officials are now recalibrating their thinking on whether to some scrap tariffs or launch a new “Section 301” investigation, setting aside those options for now in the wake of China’s unprecedented war games around Taiwan in response to Pelosi’s visit to the island. The United Steelworkers and other unions have urged USTR to keep the tariffs on Chinese goods in place to help “level the playing field” for American workers and reduce U.S. reliance on Chinese suppliers. Tai has argued in favor of keeping the tariffs as leverage as part of a strategy to press China for changes to its state driven economic policies.
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Tai said President Joe Biden’s “worker-centered” trade and economic policies were producing results, with manufacturing jobs and industrial production rising. Trade policy will no longer neglect the needs of workers and domestic investments such as last year’s infrastructure act and the $440 billion climate, drugs and tax bill will create more job opportunities ― and demand for steel, Tai said. “Worker-centered trade starts with workers at the table. But it’s got to be more than that. You also need to be able to provide substantive input. And, most importantly, to see your impact on policy,” Tai said.
Unions also will be a centerpiece of trade discussions with the European Union, Tai said, adding USTR would also continue to press labor rights cases under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade.
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