A number of new methods have been unveiled by the Biden administration to try to prevent the nation’s shipping and metal industries from being eroded by Foreign overcapacity and non-market opportunities.
One of the steps is a newly-initiated analysis, under area 301 of the Trade Act, of China ’s sea, transportation and manufacturing industries. Another, still at the possible phase, would be a hike of the latest 7. 5 % tax rate on Chinese steel and aluminum exports.
These actions go against the previous plan by US President Joe Biden, who had criticized then-President Donald Trump for imposing an additional 25 % tariff on Chinese goods in 2018.
Trump at the time claimed that China had cheated up thousands of US tasks by manipulating its money. After that, Biden claimed that adding taxes would only result in losses for American farmers, suppliers, and customers by increasing their pay.
After he took office in January 2021, but, Biden did not cancel the extra taxes.
‘Growing worries’
High-quality US goods must contend with intentionally low-priced options produced with higher carbon emissions due to China’s overcapacity and non-market opportunities in the steel and aluminum sectors, according to a statement released on Wednesday.
The administration acknowledged growing issues that cruel Chinese trade practices, including flooding the market with sub-market-cost steel, are causing distortions in the world’s manufacturing sector and reducing competition.
Biden is urging US Trade Representative Katherine Tai to consider bringing the current area 301 tax level on Chinese steel and aluminum up to three, and directing his team to work together to stop China and other nations from evading US steel and aluminum import tariffs.
Petition
Five US national labor unions filed a petition on March 12 to complain that the US commercial shipping industry has lost tens of thousands of work and more than 70 % of its factories since 1975.
They claimed that China’s unfair business practices, which is now the largest manufacturing country in the world, are the biggest problem to the US shipping industry’s recovery.
Since joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, China has invested the equivalent of hundreds of billions of dollars and implemented many supportive measures to grow its manufacturing sector.
“The US complaint is full of misleading charges, ” a director of the Chinese Commerce Ministry said Thursday. It interprets regular trade and investment actions as harming US national security and commercial interests, and it attributes blame to China for US business issues, which lacks a factual foundation and goes against common sense economics. ”
He said China is highly displeased with and strongly opposes the newly-launched part 301 research. He claimed that the US is making another error because the WTO has now determined that the Trump administration’s China taxes were in contravention of its rules.
Xenophobic – who?
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump announced in February that he would impose tariffs on Chinese products of more than 60 % if he won the US election in November. Next month, he vowed to strike vehicles made in Mexico by Chinese firms with a 100 % price.
Additionally, Biden has lately emphasized the damaging effects of China’s industrial overcapacity on British job markets.
Biden announced that his presidency would raise tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum during a campaign rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Wednesday.
He called China “xenophobic” as the land is “not importing everything. He claimed that China’s population is aging and that its economy is experiencing true issues.
Are those phrases intended for China or the US itself? ” Li Jin, a director of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said in a standard media briefing on Thursday in response to Biden’s responses.
We have been urging the US to firmly adhere to WTO regulations, the principle of good competition, and quickly halt all trade protectionist measures against China, he said. China will take all necessary steps to protect its genuine right. ”
The American Iron and Steel Institute ( AISI) estimates that US steel producers imported 28. 25 million tons of steel last month, over 8. 7 % from 2022.
6 were imported by the US. 88 million tons of steel from Canada, 4. 3 million plenty came from Mexico. 94 million plenty from Brazil.
China ’s exports of steel products grew by 36 % to 90. According to the China Iron and Steel Association ( CISA ), there will be 3 million tons in 2023 compared to last year. Best spots of Chinese material are South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Turkey in 2022.
About 2 percent of China’s metallic products were exported directly to the US. 25 % of the total US metal goods. 6 million plenty in 2023.
In 2022, China was the world’s largest producer of copper and aluminum materials with its export valued at over US$ 42 billion, followed by Germany ( US$ 21. 1 billion ) and the US ( US$ 14. 51 billion ).
Last season, US imports of Taiwanese metal amounted to 200,000 lots, 3. 5 % of its entire metal imports. 46 million loads.
In a Thursday content from a Shandong-based writer, it is absurd that Biden wants to raise tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum while the US primarily sources the two metals somewhere. “Biden just wants to gain help in the jump state of Pennsylvania. ”
He says the emphasis of Biden’s latest feedback is not about China, but, instead, the senator ’s decision to stop Japan’s Nippon Steel from buying the Pittsburgh-based US Steel Corp.
Next December, Nippon proposed to get US Steel Corp for US$ 15 billion. The US Justice Department is also conducting an antitrust investigation into the agreement, though.
Read: China detonates an EU engine sensor due to bad wind.
Observe Jeff Pao on Twitter at @jeffpao3