The Trump administration's tariffs on China and the subsequent trade deal between the two countries have both hurt US consumers, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the New York Times in an interview published on Friday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th July, 2021) The Trump administration's tariffs on China and the subsequent trade deal between the two countries have both hurt US consumers, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the New York Times in an interview published on Friday.
"Tariffs are taxes on consumers, in some cases it seems to me what we did hurt American consumers and the type of deal that the prior administration negotiated really didn't address in many ways the fundamental problems we have with China," Yellen said.
Yellen's comments came as the Biden administration is in the seventh month of an extensive review of the United States' economic relationship with China. The review seeks to answer the question about what the Biden administration needs to do about the trade deal former President Donald Trump concluded with China that includes Beijing's commitments to buy US products and reform its trade practices.
Biden has undone most of Trump's executive orders on immigration, climate and other matters, but has left intact the tariffs Trump imposed on China, indicating that his administration would likely use them in the future to pressure Beijing into making concessions on trade and other issues.
The trade deal Trump concluded with China in January 2020 requires Beijing to buy at least $200 billion more of US goods and services over two years - in 2020 and 2021 - on top of its purchases in 2017.
In the first year of the deal, China imported about $100 billion of US goods, making up 58 percent of the actual targeted volume of $173.1 billion for 2020 - data tracked by the Peterson Institute for International Economics showed.
