Business groups call on Biden to resume trade talks with China

WASHINGTON – Nearly three dozen of the country’s most influential business groups – representing retailers, chipmakers, farmers and others – call on the Biden administration to resume negotiations with China and cut tariffs on imports, claiming they are slowing the US economy.

Tariffs on Chinese electronics, clothing and other goods, which are paid by US importers, have been maintained in part to ensure that China meets its obligations under its 2020 Phase 1 trade pact with the United States. United.

In a letter to US Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday, business groups say Beijing has met “important criteria and commitments” in the deal, including opening up markets to US financial institutions and reducing certain regulatory barriers to US agricultural exports. in China.

BIDEN eases sanctions against China “cannot be justified”: EX-REAGAN DIRECTOR OF INTL. ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

“A worker-centered trade agenda should take into account the costs that US and Chinese tariffs impose on Americans here and at home and remove tariffs that harm US interests,” the letter said, referring to administration policy. aimed at making workers’ interests a priority.

Spokesmen for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Treasury did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

This aerial photo taken on June 22, 2021 shows cargo containers stacked at Yantian Port in Shenzhen, in China’s southern Guangdong province. (STR / AFP via Getty Images)

Business groups include some of Washington’s most influential big business associations, including the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, the National Retail Federation, the American Farm Bureau Federation, and the Semiconductor Industry Association.

The trade group offensive represents growing frustration on the part of many U.S. companies as the administration’s review of China’s trade and economic policy. The administration has given little indication of its intention to try to implement the Trump administration’s phase one trade deal or seek to extend it.

Chinese officials have told U.S. business executives they will not move forward on trade issues until the administration makes it clear that it accepts the phase one deal.

BIDEN’S SOLAR AMBITIONS COLLISION WITH CHINA’S LABOR COMPLAINTS

The review is expected to continue until the fall, administration officials said.

The administration has also not indicated whether it intends to maintain tariffs on Chinese products, which now represent levies on about half of what the United States imports from China.

Yellen said she believed the tariffs were economically damaging, but other administration officials said privately her remarks were not intended to signal a change in U.S. trade policy.

Chad Bown, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics who closely monitors the Phase 1 agreement, said China was well behind in its commitment to increase its purchases by $ 200 million over two years.

Trade groups have indirectly acknowledged this, saying that “there is more work to be done by the two governments to ensure that China respects its existing purchasing agreements.”

But the groups argued that the USTR should also start negotiating on issues that were not covered by the Phase 1 agreement, including state subsidies, government procurement, cybersecurity and digital commerce. .

“We want to express our support for continued engagement with China on trade and economic issues,” said the letter, which includes strong support for the phase one agreement.

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

In addition, the groups are urging the USTR to grant companies exceptions to certain tariffs and initiate a process to reduce tariffs on Chinese products as a whole.

“We also recognize that a full tariff resolution is unlikely, in the absence of substantially greater progress by China on fundamental issues,” the letter said, which would imply further negotiations.