US considers removal of some China tariffs to combat inflation

The U.S. may be scrapping some tariffs on China, and this was revealed by Gina Raimondo, the country's commerce secretary, on Sunday, Jun 5. She shared that President Joe Biden has asked the ministry to look at some options for removing the tariffs that were implemented by former President Donald Trump.

It was said that the officials were requested to look into the lifting of the China tariff as it is being seen as a way to fight the current high inflation. Then again, if approved, not all of the imports from China will go tax-free as this will only be applicable to some items.

"We are looking at it. In fact, the president has asked us on his team to analyze that. And so we are in the process of doing that for him and he will have to make that decision," Raimondo told the media in an interview last weekend.

She went on to say, "There are other products - household goods, bicycles, etc - and it may make sense to weigh lifting tariffs on those."

The commerce secretary further said that the U.S. administration made the decision to continue with the tariff on major things such as steel and aluminum to protect the steel industry as well as American workers in this field, as per Reuters.

President Biden said he is now mulling the discarding of some of the tariffs on Chinese goods worth hundreds of billions of dollars. These duties were imposed in 2018 and 2019 by then-President Trump. China argued that reducing the tariff will definitely help cut costs for the American citizens.

In any case, it seems that the U.S. is taking this point seriously as the tariffs on China are now under strategic review, and this was confirmed by the U.S. Trade Office. The review is for possible changes that can lower tariffs on Chinese goods.

"We are looking at everything and what we're focused on is making sure that we have again, a long term realignment of the relationship with China, focusing on some of the concerns … such as non-market practices and economic coercion," Sarah Bianchi, Deputy US Trade Representative, said.

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