U.S. President Joe Biden is getting ready to announce new tariffs on China. These tariffs will target important areas like electric vehicles. The announcement could happen as early as next week, maybe even on Tuesday. They might keep the current tariffs as they are, but we’re not sure yet. They’re also thinking about putting tariffs on other things like semiconductors and solar equipment.
We don’t have all the details about how much these tariffs will cost or exactly what things they’ll cover. But the government is focusing on areas that are important for competition and national security.
The U.S. Trade Representative’s office gave their ideas to the White House a few weeks ago. But they’ve been talking about it a lot before making the final decision.
Biden is a Democrat who wants to be president again in November. He wants to show that his way of dealing with China is different from what the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, did. Trump used tariffs a lot, but Biden’s team thinks that approach caused problems.
The White House and the U.S. Trade Representative’s office didn’t want to talk about this. The news about the tariffs first came from Bloomberg.
These tariffs might make China mad, especially since things between the U.S. and China are already tense. Trump used tariffs a lot during his time as president, and China hit back with its tariffs.
Biden doesn’t want a big trade war with China. But he thinks that the U.S. and China are in a new kind of competition now.
Both Biden and Trump have changed how the U.S. deals with trade. They’re not as interested in free trade as before, especially after China joined the World Trade Organization.
Biden started looking at Trump’s trade policy in 2022. Last month, he said he wanted to put higher tariffs on Chinese metal products. But this would only affect a specific range of products, like steel and aluminum, worth more than $1 billion.
Biden also wants to check out China’s trade practices in other areas, like shipbuilding and logistics. This could lead to even more tariffs.
The Biden administration is also talking to Mexico about not letting China sell metal products to the U.S. through Mexico.
China doesn’t like these tariffs. They say they’re not helpful and hurt both the U.S. and the global economy.
