US Treasury Secretary speaks out on tariffs on China, reveals Trump's proposal

On June 20, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen defended President Joe Biden's decision to increase tariffs on some Chinese goods as highly strategic.

US Treasury Secretary highlights decision to increase tariffs on Chinese goods. (Source: e-ir.info)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's tariff proposals would be much broader and would increase costs for consumers, Yellen said.

Speaking at a press conference in Atlanta, Georgia (USA), Ms. Yellen emphasized that Mr. Biden's new tax aims to protect electric vehicles, solar energy products and semiconductors from the threat of China's excess production capacity created by Beijing's excessive investment.

“The administration refuses to allow Washington companies in these sectors to be “go bankrupt” due to Beijing’s coordinated export dumping,” she said.

Treasury Secretary Yellen said other countries are taking similar actions.

However, President Biden's tariff announcement last month still leaves in place punitive tariffs of up to 25% on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of other Chinese imports, from toys to internet routers, that were imposed by former President Trump in 2018 and 2019 under a "Section 301" investigation into China's theft of American intellectual property.

“China has not really done anything to address those concerns, so we think it would be inappropriate to remove those tariffs,” Ms. Yellen said.

Asked about Mr Trump's proposal to impose a 10% tariff on all goods imported into the US and 60% or more on Chinese goods, Ms Yellen said they "would affect all of our trading partners and all of our trade".

“I believe that it is a program that is significant enough to both increase the cost to consumers in general for all the imports they buy and also to harm American businesses, many of whom rely on imported goods for their supply chains. That would significantly increase their costs,” Treasury Secretary Yellen said.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/bo-truong-tai-chinh-my-len-tieng-ve-thue-quan-ap-len-trung-quoc-he-lo-de-xuat-cua-ong-trump-275771.html