Biden campaigned against the trade war with China, but ending it is complicated
When President Biden was running for office, he described the steep tariffs on Chinese imports put in place by then-President Donald Trump as hurting U.S. consumers, farmers and manufacturers.
But nine months into his time in the White House, there has been no sign that Biden is preparing to quickly abandon the use of Trump's signature tariffs.
After a lengthy review that has frustrated U.S. business groups, who say the tariffs have been an unfair burden, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai plans to give a major speech on the U.S.-China trade relationship on Monday.
Tai is expected to lay out some of Biden's initial steps to address the China trade policy dilemma: how to protect American workers businesses from predatory trade practices without hurting the parts of the U.S. economy that rely on Chinese goods.
In an interview last, Tai said the Trump tariffs have been effective at focusing attention on the issue. Tai told Politico the tariffs are "a tool for creating the kind of effective policies, and [are] something for us to build on and to use in terms of defending to the hilt the interests of the American economy, the American worker and American businesses and our farmers, too."
