WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The following is a fact sheet issued by the U.S. Trade Representatives Office and the White House, summarizing the comments by USTR Katherine Tai Monday in an appearance at the Washington think tank CSIS:
Joe Biden ran for president on a promise to restore the backbone of this country, the middle class. His North Star will always be a simple question: what is best for American workers and interests? We welcome competition with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). We have also been clear that competition needs to be fair and managed responsibly. Our objective is to create a level playing field for American workers, farmers, and businesses.
President Biden and his Administration are clear-eyed that Beijing is resistant to making meaningful reforms to address concerns shared by the U.S. and many other countries about the distortions to the global market from its state-centered economic system. Just like the President said we would, we spent our first months in office positioning the United States to approach Beijing from a position of strength by investing in our domestic renewal and revitalizing our alliances and partnerships abroad.
While making significant progress on those two fronts, the Biden administration undertook a comprehensive, thoughtful USTR-led, whole-of-government review of the bilateral trade relationship. Today, we are announcing the initial steps we will take to re-align our trade policies towards the PRC around OUR priorities:
• First, Ambassador Katherine Tai will engage her PRC counterpart to hold Beijing accountable for Phase One commitments that are in our interests, including efforts to solidify gains for American workers and farmers in Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, and across the country who were promised that the PRC would buy their goods. The reality is Phase One did not meaningfully address our fundamental concerns with the PRC’s trade practices, but there is real world evidence that businesses covered by the Phase 1 trade deal have done better.
So, for American industries like agriculture that have benefited from Phase 1, President Biden will continue to promote our economic interests – and create more predictability for American industry, which allows them to plan and grow. We are going to hold the PRC to the commitments it made.
• Second, while pursuing Phase One enforcement, we will restart our domestic tariff exclusions process to mitigate the effects of certain Section 301 tariffs that have not generated any strategic benefits and raised costs on Americans. We will ensure current Section 301 tariffs align appropriately with our economic priorities like boosting American workers’ wages and job opportunities, securing the resilience of critical supply chains, sustaining our technological edge, and protecting our national security interests.
• Third, we continue to have serious concerns with the PRC that were not addressed in the Phase One deal, specifically related to its state-centered and non-market trade practices including Beijing’s non-market policies and practices that distort competition by propping up state-owned enterprises, limiting market access, and other coercive and predatory practices in trade and technology.
Even as we work to enforce the terms of Phase One, we will raise our broader concerns with Beijing’s non-market policies and practices like abuse of state-owned enterprises, anti-competitive behavior and subsidies, the theft of American intellectual property directly and in coordination with our allies and partners. We will defend American economic interests from these harmful policies and practices, using the full range of tools we have and by developing new tools as needed. The President will use all of the tools at his disposal to create reciprocity and a level playing field for US workers.
• And lastly, we know that we cannot do it alone. We are not the only ones who are being harmed by Beijing’s unfair trade practices. We will continue consulting and coordinating with allies and partners who share our strong interest in ensuring that the terms of competition are fair, we will work collectively to set the rules of the road for trade and technology in the 21st century, and strengthen the global market for our workers and businesses.
This work with our allies and partners is already bearing fruit, as evidenced by efforts at the G7, the US-EU Summit, the Quad, the OECD, and the TTC. The Boeing-Airbus deal struck in June of this year is just one example of how this commitment to work with our allies creates more opportunity to sell American products. We will accelerate this progress and look forward to continuing the conversations with our likeminded allies and partners about the impact the PRC’s non-market practices have on them, and how we can work together to find solutions.
The previous administration’s unilateral approach alienated our allies and partners and hurt select sectors of the American economy. We want to bring deliberative, long-term thinking to our approach. Our objective is not to escalate trade tensions with China or double down on the previous Administration’s flawed strategy.
While we have legitimate concerns with the way in which the PRC competes, we welcome constructive and candid discussions with Beijing to identify concrete ways to address those concerns. At the same time, where Beijing continues to pursue its unfair and coercive practices, we will use the full range of our tools to help ensure that the U.S.-China trade relationship works for American workers, industry, and supply chains and we will work with allies and partners to build a secure and resilient global economy that promotes fair competition, broad-based prosperity, and democratic values.
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