U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai will present the long-awaited strategy of the Biden administration for the troubled U.S. China trade relationship in a speech Monday at a Washington think-tank, her office announced.
Tai will give remarks at the Center for Strategic Studies, Washington on China’s trade policy and take part in a question-and answer session, USTR stated in a Thursday statement.
Tai has been reviewing Washington’s China trade policies from top to bottom since March when he took office.
The tariffs that were imposed by Donald Trump on Chinese imports have been maintained by Joe Biden, the U.S. president. However, his administration has not yet revealed how it plans to address China’s non-market trade practices and subsidies.
Tai’s remarks at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) on Monday will mark the start of the final three months of the “Phase 1” U.S.-China trade deal struck that Trump struck with Beijing at the start of 2019, easing a tariff war between the world’s two largest economies. It called for China to boost purchases of U.S. farm and manufactured goods, energy and services by $200 billion over the two years to the end of 2021 compared to 2017 levels.
Officials from the Biden administration claim that China has not fulfilled its Phase 1 trade agreement commitments. They intend to continue to enforce their international trade obligations.
Chad Bown is a senior fellow at The Peterson Institute for International Economics, Washington. He estimates that China’s purchases from U.S. exported goods through August have been at 62% of Phase 1 targets. This estimate is based on U.S export data.
The United States has made it difficult for Chinese companies to access sensitive U.S. technologies, increasing tensions between these two economic superpowers.
Tai stated that the United States faces “very big challenges” in its trade relations with China and called for engagement from the Biden administration. She asked Congress to create new trade laws tools to combat massive Chinese subsidies in high-tech sectors.
The Biden administration sought to mobilize allies of the United States to support Washington’s efforts to confront Beijing’s abusive trade policies. On Wednesday, officials from the United States and European Union met in Pittsburgh to strengthen transatlantic cooperation in technology regulation, protecting sensitive technology and addressing problems posed by “nonmarket economies”, a reference to China.
