Biden once slammed Trump's China tariffs. Now he's building on them: ANALYSIS
By: Selina Wang (ABC News)
Time for a little refresher. The tariff 'sales tax' that Kamala Harris lambasted actually belongs to Joe Biden. Maybe Harris wasn't in the room that day.
Kamala Harris shifts positions like an over active insomniac. Harris is now flopping and flipping on four month old policy. Will the real Kamala Harris, please, stand up?
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
May 14, 2024 -- Although the Biden administration won't admit it, new tariffs on China announced Tuesday represent a major shift for President Joe Biden.
Back in 2019, Biden slammed then-President Donald Trump's move to impose tariffs on $300 billion worth of Chinese imports.
"Trump doesn't get the basics. He thinks his tariffs are being paid by China," Biden said at the time. "Any freshman econ student could tell you that the American people are paying his tariffs."
Then in 2020, while campaigning for the White House, Biden vowed to remove Trump's tariffs if elected.
Studies have shown that American consumers largely bore the brunt of those taxes.
President Joe Biden sits down to sign a document imposing major new tariffs on electric vehicles, semiconductors, solar equipment and medical supplies imported from China in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, May 14, 2024.Susan Walsh/AP
But now, not only is Biden keeping those Trump-era tariffs in place, he actually is building on them.
It's true that Biden's new tariffs on $18 billion worth of Chinese imports are narrowly focused on a few strategic industries. At a Rose Garden event unveiling the new actions, Biden touted it as a "smart approach" to target goods such as electric vehicles, solar cells, steel, aluminum and certain medical equipment.
But he is maintaining many of the broad-based tariffs from the Trump-era that he was once highly critical of.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai was repeatedly pressed on the apparent reversal during the White House daily press briefing.
"In terms of the price that Americans paid for in the previous era, some of that -- maybe a lot of it -- was about the chaos and unpredictability that it created and the escalation that resulted," Tai said.
Tai added that in addition to looking at prices, the yearslong review of the Trump-era tariffs also investigated whether they had changed China's behavior.
"Not only have we not seen the problematic practices subsidize in some areas, we have seen them get worse. And in that light, there is actually no reason for us, no justification to relieving the tariff burdens on the trade with Beijing," she said.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai speaks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, May 14, 2024.Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters
Still, the National Retail Federation is calling on Biden to repeal those tariffs, arguing that "as consumers continue to battle inflation, the last thing the administration should be doing is placing additional taxes on imported products that will be paid by U.S. importers and eventually U.S. consumers."
Biden's shift partly reflects the political environment -- with both Biden and Trump fighting to appear tougher on China in what's shaping up to be a 2024 rematch -- but it also reflects growing recognition that China's trade practices are undercutting American manufacturers and workers.
Ambassador Tai argues that China's economic model is built on a "system of state support that is built to dominate and take over entire industries." Tai adds that Beijing's subsidies aim to "corner" the world market and achieve "dominance" and "dependency."
Greta Peisch, the former general counsel for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, told ABC News: "Things have changed and evolved. There was a hope that China would become more of a free market over time. We've seen the opposite in recent years. It's been trade distorted by China's practices."
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Well, Democrats were against tariffs when Trump imposed them. Then Democrats were for tariffs when Biden claimed credit and expanded them. Will Democrats be against tariffs again just so Kamala Harris can score political points?
Politics is an Ideological desert of shifting sands. Unpredictable. Erratic. Harmony changes into dissonance, the immediate outlives the profound, esoteric becomes cliched. And Kamala Harris has become Democrats' new dromedary wandering the dunes in search of firm footing.
(Apologies to )
A jackass with a hump? Really? Now, there's a political picture to ponder.
Blaming Trump for Biden's actions has been an ongoing thing for the last 4 years.
Taking credit for Trump's policies is also an ongoing thing for the last 4 years as well.
Ah, the paranoia, the desperate yet useless moves to contain China with the only consequence being increasing the financial burden on lower income American consumers - It's like watching a movie. Try as it might, America is not going to succeed in curtailing China's advancement.
And in fact, the only real losers from those tariffs are the American people, so keep it up you stupid fucks. And in fact, joining the idiots is Trudeau, who just announced some huge tariffs, so I'm sad that my daughter in Toronto could be hurt by them.
China doesn’t play fair with trade partners. China is allied with russia and iran, the same iran that chants “death to israel.” I would love to see every western country pull manufacturing out of china and place massive tariffs on chinese products made by chinese companies
There's no way foreign companies are going to give up the profits they can make in China, because otherwise how could their CEOs afford their yachts? China is not exactly struggling no matter how many tariffs others have imposed, and yes, China has developed and is developing more and more lucrative relationships with nations around the world, including Russia and Iran, like they've just been strengthening with most of the African nations, because it benefits from its efforts, and the American politicians and media may not have wanted to say much about that. And China didn't need its army to create mutually beneficial relationships.
China's bias may not be favourable to Israel, but at least it's not fanning the flames of existing wars.
Can anyone answer me this? I keep reading the words from American politicians about the "China threat". What exactly IS the "threat" that China is being accused of? Is it a fear that China is going to invade the USA? That would be SUICIDAL. Is China going to try to bankrupt the USA? The USA is China's biggest customer, which is a necessity for the maintenance of China's economy so once again that would be suicidal. Is China making too many mutually beneficial relationships around the world? Isn't that a form of jealousy on the part of the USA? Is hegemony reserved only for the USA to practise? Is China trying to force other nations to become Communist? If that's so, please tell me which ones. What exactly IS the "China threat"? Does anyone here know what it is, cause I certainly don't.