“There is an ongoing review of that,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a press briefing when asked to what extent the administration is looking at cutting tariffs on Chinese goods as a way to ease inflation.
“We are certainly continuing to look at where these tariffs put in place by the prior administration don’t make sense. And one of the factors we are looking at as a part of this review is certainly the impact on jobs, and wages and of course on inflation, and costs of course of goods. But we are also looking at where we have concerns about the economic policies and approaches of China.”
This comes after it was announced that China and Russia remain on top of Washington’s list of countries that must be monitored for intellectual property protection issues.
The US named 27 trading partners as having IP protection issues, heavily focused on China, which was mentioned over 100 times in the 88-page document.
“China must provide a level playing field for IP protection and enforcement, refrain from requiring or pressuring technology transfer to Chinese companies at all levels of government, open China’s market to foreign investment, and embrace open and market-oriented policies,” the report said.
In 2018, the US hiked duties on certain Chinese imports in a bid to balance the trade deficit. Both countries exchanged several rounds of reciprocal tariffs the following year.
In January 2020, the Trump administration and the Chinese government made a two-year trade deal known as Phase One, under which the US retained 25 per cent duties on Chinese goods worth about $250 billion per year, and 7.5 per cent duties on goods worth USD 120 billion.
Meanwhile, China committed to purchasing USD 75 billion worth of US industrial goods, $50 billion worth of energy, USD 40 billion worth of agricultural products and up to $40 billion in services.
In December 2021, China said it made efforts to fulfill the deal despite the pandemic and expressed the hope that the US would also make efforts on its end to continue developing bilateral trade.