Biden Reviewing $300Bln Of Tariffs On Chinese Imports Due To Expire - US Trade Rep. Office

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd May, 2022) The Biden administration has begun reviewing the tariffs on more than $300 billion in Chinese imports that were imposed four years ago by former President Donald Trump and are due to expire in the coming months, the Office of the US Trade Representative� (USTR) said on Tuesday.

The review will require domestic industries that benefit from the tariffs to request for their continuation, sources� familiar with the matter told Sputnik. The sources added that the USTR might otherwise terminate the additional duties as a means of easing inflation running at four-decade highs.

"The first step in the process is to notify representatives of domestic industries that benefit from the tariff actions of the possible termination of those actions," the USTR said in statement that referred to the review of the tariffs imposed under the China's Acts, Policies, and Practices Related to Technology Transfer, Intellectual Property and Innovation policy. "If a request for continuation is received, USTR will conduct a review of the tariff actions."

Under the policy, the tariffs will automatically expire four years after being imposed, unless the USTR decides otherwise, after analyzing their effectiveness and consequences. The review must be concluded within 60 days of their potential end, which is July 6 for the first group of $34 billion worth of duties.

The Biden administration has not said whether it will signal of plans to remove the tariffs, even with inflation running above 7% and prices from energy to wheat surging after Russia's special operation in Ukraine tightened commodity supplies.

Trump signed the tariffs in 2018 as part of a trade war against China that saw duties imposed on almost $500 billion of goods shipped between the two countries. In early 2020, the two sides agreed to a Phase One trade deal that led to some US tariff reductions as Beijing pledged to buy $200 billion in energy, farm and manufacturing goods and services through December 2021 and also address intellectual property theft.

Biden, who came to office in January 2021, has kept the Trump-era tariffs in place more than a year into his presidency amid data continually showing China falling far behind its purchase commitments under the Phase One deal.

While the Biden administration's indifference to doing away with the tariffs is increasing the chances that the Trump-era duties might stay longer, the relentless raise in inflation might also cause a rethink, the sources said.

After a 3.5% contraction in 2020 gross domestic product (GDP) forced by the coronavirus pandemic measures, the US economy grew by 5.7% in 2021 - the biggest calendar-year growth since 1984.

However, inflation grew even faster. The Federal Reserve's preferred price indicator - the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) Index - rose 5.8% for all of last year, in its largest annual increase since July 1982.

Inflationary pressure has continued in the first quarter of this year, with the PCE Index growing 6.6% in the year to March, while GDP fell 1.4% over the first three months. If the GDP contracts in the second quarter as well, the United States would automatically be in recession.