Biden Didn’t Discuss Tariffs on Marathon Call With Xi: White House

President Joe Biden on his 140-minute call Thursday with President Xi Jinping explained to the Chinese leader the administration’s “core concerns with China’s unfair economic practices, which harm American workers and harm American families,” a senior administration official told reporters Thursday in a background briefing. But Biden on the call “did not discuss any potential steps he might take” to remove or reduce the Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports, said the official. “It would be wrong to believe that somehow a decision on any next steps was somehow waiting for this conversation.” On Taiwan, Biden “underscored” to Xi that the U.S. opposes “unilateral changes to the status quo by either side, and commitment to the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” said the official. The two leaders discussed that the U.S. and China “have differences when it comes to Taiwan, but that they have managed those for over 40 years and that keeping an open line of communication on this issue is essential to doing so,” said the official.