EXCLUSIVE — Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is calling on the Biden administration to keep tariffs on Chinese goods in place and demanding an investigation into China’s alleged unfair trade practices, according to a letter sent to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and obtained by the Washington Examiner.
In the letter sent to Tai on Monday, Hawley argued that the tariffs level the playing field for American workers and are important tools for countering China economically. The senator also asked about the status of a long-awaited investigation into Beijing’s use of industrial subsidies that give Chinese companies a boost over their American rivals.
“China repeatedly violates the rules of international trade and unapologetically steals and cheats in its economic relationship with the United States,” Hawley wrote. “To cut tariffs at this juncture would be a strategic blunder.”
BIDEN FACES IMPATIENT LEFT AND HAS FEW OPTIONS AS ROE HANGS IN BALANCE
The Biden administration last week began a legally required review of the tariffs that former President Donald Trump imposed on some $370 billion worth of Chinese goods under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. The tariffs were aimed at pressuring China to halt what officials described as a pattern of unfair trade practices and theft of American intellectual property, with the first wave imposed in July 2018.
An investigation into Chinese subsidies under Section 301 was telegraphed last year but has not materialized. The USTR has not responded to a request for comment on the status of the planned actions.
In the Monday letter, Hawley pointed to comments by top Biden administration officials who have pitched a tariff rollback as a response to inflation as the White House struggles to rein in rising prices. The latest data show inflation surging 8.5% compared to last year, hitting a new 40-year high.
“I think it’s worth considering,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Bloomberg TV last month when asked about lifting tariffs on Chinese-made goods to ease rising prices.
Yellen’s comments followed remarks by deputy national security adviser Daleep Singh, who said that many of the Section 301 tariffs should be reframed to serve the country’s strategic priorities. He argued that duties on consumer goods “serve no strategic purpose.”
“For product categories that are not implicated by [supply chain] objectives, there’s not much of a case for those tariffs being in place,” Singh said during an event hosted by the Bretton Woods Committee. “Why do we have tariffs on bicycles or apparel or underwear?”
Tai last week responded to the calls to consider tariff cuts, saying these were being weighed by the Biden administration but would need to align with broader trade goals.
In remarks at the Milken Institute, a California-based economic think tank, Joe Biden’s top trade official said that while “all tools are on the table,” the United States should remain focused on its longer-term goals.
“We need to be looking at our economic policy tools across the board. You want to look at tariffs? Sure, let’s look at tariffs. But also, let’s look at monetary policy, fiscal policy, let’s look at tax policy,” Tai said. Still, she added, “we need to make sure whatever we do right now, first of all, is effective and, second of all, doesn’t undermine the medium-term design and strategy that we know we need to pursue.”
The White House has so far largely elected to keep the tariffs in place, with Biden telling a January news conference, “We’re not there yet,” when asked about the prospect of lifting them. He said at the time that he expects Beijing to be “meeting … more of their commitments” under the Phase 1 trade deal the two countries reached in 2020.
Previously, Tai has argued that lifting the tariffs would forfeit U.S. leverage at the negotiating table with China. “No negotiator walks away from leverage, right?” she told the Wall Street Journal last year.
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Beijing has fallen approximately 40% short of the $200 billion in additional U.S. goods it promised to purchase over the past two years, according to trade data compiled by the Peterson Institute of International Economics through December last year.
The tariffs continue to have broad support among voters, according to a recent Morning Consult poll conducted on behalf of the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a trade group backed by labor and U.S.-based manufacturers.
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