US tariffs on more than US$300 billion in annual imports from China provide significant leverage and are useful from a negotiating standpoint, US President Joe Biden’s trade chief said on Wednesday amid a debate within his administration on whether to keep the duties in place.
“The China tariffs are, in my view, a significant piece of leverage, and a trade negotiator never walks away from leverage,” US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪) told a senate hearing in response to a question from US Senator Bill Hagerty about whether removing the duties would encourage “more bad behavior” by Beijing.
The comments came after Biden on Saturday said that he was in the process of making up his mind on whether to remove any of the duties. They were first imposed by then-US president Donald Trump in 2018 to pressure China to end intellectual property abuses and the practice of forced-technology transfer.
Photo: Reuters
Tai also said that there was “a limit to what we can do” to ease inflation through tariff changes.
“Next steps on actions, they’re pending” with Biden right now, Tai told the senators.
The remarks contrast with those of US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, who earlier this month said that the tariffs have hurt US consumers and businesses, and are contributing to the fastest inflation in 40 years.
Reductions in the duties could help bring down prices, Yellen said, while acknowledging that cuts are not “a panacea” for addressing inflation.
The Biden administration is looking to “reconfigure” the tariffs, she said.
US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo also said earlier this month that it “may make sense” to lift tariffs on some goods as a way to tame inflation.
The US must use all available tools and develop new ones to defend its economic interests and values against China’s unfair practices after talks showed clear limits to the nation’s willingness to live up to past commitments, Tai said on Wednesday.
The US, through direct discussions with Chinese leaders starting in October last year, pressed Beijing to live up to the so-called phase one trade agreement reached with the Trump administration, the US trade representative said.
However, several rounds of “difficult discussions” made clear that the nation is not interested in fully following through, she said.
“This has become part of a pattern,” Tai said. “The United States has repeatedly sought and obtained commitments from China, only to find that lasting change remains elusive.”
The US now needs to turn the page on the old playbook, she said, repeating previous comments.
The US has brought a renewed focus to engaging with partners and allies that are hurt by China’s unfair trade and economic practices, Tai said.
Biden recognizes that the US needs to work with other countries to confront policies that “are fundamentally at odds with the modern global trading system,” she said.
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
Nvidia Corp’s negotiations to invest as much as US$100 billion in OpenAI have broken down, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, exposing a potential rift between two of the most powerful companies in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. The discussions stalled after some inside Nvidia expressed concerns about the transaction, the WSJ reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the deliberations. OpenAI makes the popular chatbot ChatGPT, while Nvidia dominates the market for AI processors that help develop such software. The companies announced the agreement in September last year, saying at the time that they had signed a letter of intent for a strategic
RSS