What’s new: U.S. President Joe Biden may drop some tariffs on Chinese imports to help control rising consumer prices in the U.S., he said Tuesday in a speech on inflation.
The White House is reviewing tariffs imposed under former President Donald Trump and could opt to drop them altogether, Biden said.
At a routine press conference Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian didn’t comment on whether the U.S. approached China for tariff talks and reiterated that duties imposed unilaterally by the U.S. are not in the interest of China, the U.S. or the global economy.
Zhao said it’s time for the U.S. to cancel the tariffs as early as possible as they cost American companies $1.7 trillion so far and each American household $1,300 annually.
Biden said he was considering eliminating Trump-era tariffs on China to lower prices for goods in the U.S., but “no decision has been made on it.”
The background: Biden’s team has been reviewing U.S. policy on China since taking office and inheriting duties Trump slapped on about $550 billion of annual imports from the Asian nation in the hope of shrinking the goods-trade deficit. China retaliated during the trade war with tariffs on various U.S. farm products, although it later started waiving some of them.
Many Americans including former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton say they think some of the tariffs have hurt the U.S., particularly those on agricultural goods.
At a forum in Singapore late last year, Clinton predicted that the Biden administration would remove some punitive tariffs on China, but “they will not all disappear.”
Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bob.simison@caixin.com)
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