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US Trade Chief Tai: Taking a'serious' look at tools to deal China

U.S. Trade Rep Katherine Tai will inform lawmakers on Tuesday the Biden Administration is "taking a seriously look" at U.S. defense tools for dealing with threats from China's economic and trade policies. This includes a review of Trump era tariffs against Chinese imports.

In excerpts of his testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, released in advance of a Tuesday hearing, Tai stated that China's policy was causing "dependencies and vulnerability in multiple sectors" and harming American businesses and workers, as well as creating real risks for supply chains.

Tai stated, "This is the reason we are looking at our existing tools to address this problem. This includes our four-year review on Section 301 tariffs for China."

Tai's testimony about the Biden administration’s 2024 trade plan comes only a week after U.S. Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen warned Chinese leaders to stop overinvesting in production capacity of electric vehicles, solar cells and other clean energy products. She said that this would lead to an unacceptably large wave of exports which would harm producers and workers both in the United States as well as elsewhere.

Yellen will begin a dialogue with Chinese officials at the Treasury on Tuesday about "balanced development". However, China trade experts believe that her message to Beijing regarding excess capacity could be an early step towards a "Section 301", unfair trade practices investigation, which could impose new duties on EVs and solar panels, among other imports.

In 2018, the former President Donald Trump used Section 301 of 1974's Trade Act to impose tariffs of hundreds of billions of US dollars on Chinese imports. The Biden administration has been examining the issue of renewing these duties for a long time.

Tai will also tell lawmakers she is reviewing a petition by five U.S. Unions requesting a Section 301 investigation of China's allegedly unfair policies, practices and acts in the maritime logistic and shipbuilding sectors.

Tai's excerpts include: "Our relationship with China is complex and, as the president said, we do not want conflict with China but competition,"

Tai stated that a major objective of the Biden Administration's supply chain work has been to reduce dependence on China, and diversify sources of supply in order to avoid bottlenecks such as those at the end the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Tai stated that "Reducing dependences and vulnerabilities, and strengthening supply chain is a major USTR priority this year. This informs our work in the President's Council on Supply Chain Resilience."

She has placed workers at the forefront of U.S. Trade Policy, and is working to improve labor standards when negotiating trade agreements with other countries. She stated that this included prioritizing strong commitments to labor in negotiations with Kenya, and Taiwan. (Reporting and editing by Michael Perry; David Lawder is the reporter)