USTR Reviewing ‘Components’ of US Policy on China, Including Tariffs

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is doing a “top-to-bottom review” of the U.S.-China “trade and economic relationship” through the agency’s “lens,” USTR Katherine Tai told a Thursday House Ways and Means Committee hearing on President Joe Biden’s trade policy agenda. This began at the request of Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who did a similar study when he was USTR under President George W. Bush, said Tai. “This is a really important opportunity” to look at “all the components” here, including phase one trade agreement, Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports and tariff exclusions, she said. It gives her agency the chance to “strategically think through what are the components going to be of an effective strategy,” she said. “What in what we have right now is effective? What can be more effective, and how do we turn the direction of this very important challenge towards a vision that is going to serve the interests of the U.S. economy today, in the medium term and also in the long term?”