Washington will keep China tariffs at their current level as the Trump administration seeks “continuity” after the Supreme Court struck down the levies it imposed last year, according to US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, weeks ahead of a high-stakes meeting between the two countries’ leaders.
The US will keep in place current China tariffs, which have varied from 35 per cent to 50 per cent depending on the product, since the countries “de-escalated” the trade war last year, Greer said on Wednesday in an interview with Fox Business.
“We don’t intend to escalate beyond that,” Greer said. “We intend to really stick to the deal that we had before.”
Greer’s remarks came days after Supreme Court justices blocked the sweeping tariffs US President Donald Trump imposed last year using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), effectively invalidating a powerful tool the White House has used to launch its global trade war.
Trump last week quickly responded to the Supreme Court’s decision by saying that he had “great alternatives” that would allow him to “take in more money”. He pledged to invoke Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 to impose 10 per cent global tariffs, then announced on social media that he was actually increasing them to 15 per cent, the maximum rate allowed under the law.
US trading partners have scrambled to understand the Trump administration’s detailed plans to maintain its tariff regime with the new tool while upholding its global trade agreements.
Greer, Trump’s tariffs architect, said on Bloomberg on Wednesday that global tariffs would be raised to 15 per cent “where appropriate”, and that the president will sign a proclamation “in the coming days”.
“So we want to have the 10 per cent, and we’re looking [at] how to implement the 15 per cent that the president indicated, because we want to have continuity,” Greer said. “We want the countries, we want the companies, we want people to understand that, what we were doing before, we’re going to reconstruct with alternative tools.”
China’s Ministry of Commerce said that it was reviewing its trade countermeasures as the Trump administration’s new global tariffs take effect on Tuesday. It also said that it would soon hold a new round of high-level trade talks with Washington, which is expected to pave the way for Trump’s state visit to China in late March.
The White House confirmed last week that Trump’s upcoming trip to Beijing will take place from March 31 to April 2. Analysts have said that the Supreme Court’s IEEPA ruling has weakened Trump’s hand going into his meeting with Xi and strengthened China’s position.
But Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 remains in the Trump administration’s toolbox in its trade negotiations with China.
The US launched a Section 301 investigation into China’s compliance with the Phase One Trade Agreement last October, which, along with an investigation into Brazil launched last year, is still ongoing, according to Greer.
“And we have many others that we are preparing right now,” he said. “We expect to launch in the coming days and weeks, such as [those] related to forced labour in supply chains, industrial excess capacity, or unfair trading practices with respect to fishing or seafood or rice or subsidies for certain products.” -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
