Biden administration ratchets up tariffs on Chinese goods
The Biden administration on Friday announced measures that will add tariffs to Chinese products worth tens of billions of dollars, a move intended to protect U.S. factories and project a tough-on-China approach before the presidential election.
The tariffs, which range from 7.5% to 100%, will apply to clothing, solar panels, electric vehicles, syringes, steel and other goods that China has been selling at far cheaper prices than many U.S. businesses, threatening to put U.S. factories out of business.
One of the measures the Biden administration proposed would drastically limit a trade rule, called de minimis, that allowed more than 1 billion packages from China to enter the United States last year without being subject to existing tariffs. The administration said a flood of shipments under the rule had hurt U.S. manufacturers and allowed products like fentanyl and counterfeit goods to come into the country.
The trade rule allows packages to be shipped from foreign countries directly to consumers or businesses without paying tariffs, as long as the shipments do not exceed $800 per recipient per day. The new proposal would strip that exemption from a wide array of products and is likely to have a significant impact on large exporters of Chinese goods such as Shein and Temu, two online marketplaces that have become popular with American shoppers.
Katherine Tai, the U.S. trade representative, said in a statement that the tariffs would “target the harmful policies and practices of the People’s Republic of China that continue to impact American workers and businesses.”
The Biden administration’s additional tariffs on electric vehicles and other products will cover $18 billion of Chinese imports.
Both Shein and Temu have said that while they use de minimis, it is not core to their success.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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