WASHINGTON - US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Sunday that President Joe Biden has asked his team to look at the possibility of lifting some tariffs on China that were put into place by President Donald Trump to combat the current high inflation.
The president asked his team to analyse that. In an interview on Sunday, Raimondo told CNN that they were in the process of doing that for him and that he will have to make that decision, because he was asked whether the Biden administration was considering lifting tariffs on China to ease inflation.
She said that the administration had decided to keep some of the tariffs on steel and aluminum because of the fact that household goods, bicycles and steel industry are some of the products that are worth it, and it may make sense to weigh lifting tariffs on those.
In 2018 and 2019, Biden said he is considering removing the tariffs imposed on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods by his predecessor in 2018 and 2019 due to a bitter trade war between the world's two largest economies.
China has been arguing that tariff reductions would cut costs for American consumers.
Raimondo told CNN she felt the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage could continue until 2024.
She added that there was a solution to the semiconductor chip shortage. Congress needs to pass the Chips Bill. I don't know why they are delaying. The law aims to increase US semiconductor manufacturing to give the United States more of a competitive edge against China.
Raimondo disagreed with the characterisation that Biden's US $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan had contributed to the current high inflation.
Congress passed the COVID 19 relief package a year ago before it was signed into law, a signature of Biden's first year in office.