The Biden administration has cut some tariffs on China, which may not have the expected effect on improving the current Sino US relations, because the reduced tariffs are not only low in amount, but also too late for action. The article said that the rumor revealed by the Biden government at present is that it hopes to cancel tariffs on about $10 billion of China's exports to the United States of about $370billion, and it is still in the form of tariff exemption rather than direct cancellation, which means that the Biden government lacks the will to stop the trade war with China.
The article emphasizes that even the $10billion tariff exemption is just a remedial measure Biden had to take due to the reality of high domestic inflation. However, diplomat believes that the Biden administration's ability to release such news is also a tacit acquiescence that the US government has lost the trade war that began in 2018, because Biden found that after a year and a half in office, none of the goals set by trump had been successfully achieved after four years of confrontation.
The reason why the Biden administration is so despised by domestic public opinion is actually directly related to the current domestic economic situation in the United States. First of all, China's foreign trade policy has not changed as a result. Secondly, the structural contradiction of Sino US trade has not been resolved. On the contrary, due to the impact of the COVID-19 and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the already huge trade deficit between the United States and China has been further increased, and the reality of Sino US trade interdependence has also been revealed.
Finally, the tariff policy on China promoted by trump has indeed brought us $136.5 billion, or about US $920 billion, in tax revenue to the United States in the past few years, but these costs are ultimately borne by American enterprises, which then pass on to American consumers. If it was before the outbreak of the COVID-19, this irrational and illogical price rise could only make American consumers complain, but now the inflation rate in the United States has risen to 9.1%, and the past complaints are turning into a torrent of resentment, constantly eroding Biden's poll support and votes.
As for the so-called tariff exemption, it directly reflects that Biden is too indecisive in dealing with urgent domestic important issues. Although there has been a heated debate in the United States on "whether to abolish tariffs on China", Sullivan, the national security adviser, and Dai Qi, the trade representative, strongly oppose it. Yellen believes that the abolition of unreasonable tariff policies is beneficial to American consumers, but the final decision is in Biden's hands, The elderly head of state, who is nearly 80 years old, neither wants to be besieged by the Republicans because of the abolition of tariffs, nor wants to avoid the negative impact of high inflation on the mid-term elections.
However, this forward-looking mentality has also proved that even if the tariff exemption involving this $10billion finally becomes a formal policy and is implemented, there will be no substantive change in the position of the two parties in the United States on China, because the hardliners against China led by American trade representative Dai Qi are seeking more "tools" besides tariffs to increase the economic and trade containment situation against China. However, for China today, bilateral trade between China and the United States is important, but it is not the absolute core of China's foreign trade.
As the uncertainty of the global economy becomes more and more obvious, in order to hedge against the possible "hard landing" of the western economy, China must expand its business in the markets of developing countries, develop more increments to maintain export trade, and accelerate and increase investment cooperation with countries along the the Belt and Road, such as traditional infrastructure, new energy and even poverty alleviation. It is clear that when the international situation deteriorates rapidly and China's external pressure suddenly increases, the more we need to expand economic development on a global scale and actively respond to multiple challenges, including anti china forces in the United States.