Chamber Says Government Needs to Strike Balance on China Trade

U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Suzanne Clark, in her annual "State of American Business" speech Jan. 12, said that if the Biden administration fails to strike a balance on how to respond to China's economic posture, it "could undermine our security, our economy, our competitiveness, and our future."

She said the Chamber supports the U.S. and its allies working together to address Chinese human rights abuses and economic coercion. "Similarly, we must continue to stand strong against China’s unfair trading practices, intellectual property theft, and digital protectionism," she said. But she added that the commercial relationship with China is worth $1 trillion a year, and supports hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs.

"We can deploy targeted export controls and other safeguards in sectors where our national security is at risk withoutcutting off the wider trade flow that is so important to our own economy," she said.

During a press conference after the program, Clark said she hopes the new House Select Committee on China will have nuance in its thinking on how to treat different exports to and imports from China.

Neil Bradley, chief policy officer for the Chamber, said that the group has been disappointed over the last year and a half in the Section 301 tariff review, "and that we haven't made progress." He said there are certainly targets of those tariffs that have "no connection to national or economic security."

But he said that Republicans and Democrats, speaking with Chamber officials this month, have been saying the U.S. should focus on which products are critically important when working on moving away from China. He added, "Maybe that's the kind of bipartisan consensus we need to reach on the Hill that will help the administration figure out how to resolve these [Section] 301 tariffs in a reasonable, responsible way."

He said that although the Chamber is disappointed in the lack of action so far, "we haven't given up, and there's reason to be optimistic."

As she did last year (see 2201110074), Clark questioned why the administration won't work toward a trade liberalizing agreement with the U.K.

"Today we have trade deals with 20 countries, and it has been 10 years since we’ve added a single new partner to that list," she said. "Here's how we reverse the downward trend on trade quickly: Resume negotiations on a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom. The U.K. is our closest ally, and we’ve already laid the groundwork for a meaningful deal."