During an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday, U.S. Trade Representative Amb. Katherine Tai stated that the Biden administration announcing new tariffs on China and keeping the ones put in by the Trump administration doesn’t show Trump had the right approach because “The approach that the Biden administration is taking is one that is strategic, one that is aimed at using the tariffs as part of a policy tool set, we combine them with the investments that we are making” in certain industries.
Co-host Joe Mathieu asked, “Well, I’m sure you remember the controversy this started with the Trump tariffs in 2018. Your decision to keep them in place, just to be clear, Ambassador, proves that the Trump administration had the correct approach, right?”
Tai responded, “I very much disagree with that. The approach that the Biden administration is taking is one that is strategic, one that is aimed at using the tariffs as part of a policy tool set, we combine them with the investments that we are making, historic investments, in the clean energy revolution to ensure that the United States, America’s workers and businesses continue to have the space to compete and to grow in the industries of the future.”
Co-host Annmarie Hordern then asked, “Well, that said, Ambassador, none of the existing tariffs were reduced today. There have been no offsets to the tariffs that are going even higher as a result of this review and ultimate decision. Without those offsets, how inflationary could this be?”
Tai answered, “We don’t see our approach as being inflationary. In fact, our approach is an investment in the United States’ resilience, our economic resilience and the resilience of our supply chains. That requires us to rebuild and reinvigorate American manufacturing capacity, as well as looking for diversification of sources of supply and sources of demand as well. That kind of resilience, when we build it into our economy, is going to help us avoid the kinds of price spikes and inflationary dynamics that we’ve experienced over the past couple of years because of the supply restrictions that come from those supply chain resilience problems, in large part because of the degree to which we are extremely dependent on China as a source of supply.”
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