https://www.wsj.com/articles/bidens-china-tariff-cuts-would-hurt-the-u-s-inflation-trade-deficit-national-security-consumers-beijing-economy-11658175481
Biden’s China Tariff Cuts Would Hurt the U.S.
They wouldn’t knock down inflation but would wallop American businesses, workers and national security.
President Biden may rescind some Trump administration tariffs on Chinese products, a move that would hurt U.S. workers and businesses, increase our already crippling trade deficit with China, and squander Washington’s negotiation leverage with Beijing over intellectual-property theft, threatening American security interests.
The administration’s purported justification—that removing these tariffs could slow inflation—is nonsense. Established pursuant to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, the tariffs on Mr. Biden’s chopping block had almost no price impact across the economy when they were implemented. Consumer prices decelerated slightly after their implementation. To the degree the cost of the tariffs was passed on to American consumers, rather than paid by Chinese producers through price reduction or currency depreciation, it would have created a one-time price increase and couldn’t be responsible for today’s inflation.
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A lackadaisical attitude from the Biden administration on this rampant IP theft also has serious economic consequences. The U.S. government estimates that Chinese intellectual-property theft costs the American economy between $225 billion and $600 billion a year. China is the world’s top source of counterfeit and pirated goods; in 2020 alone, $1.03 billion of fake products from China were intercepted at the U.S. border. The FBI estimates it opens a new economic-espionage case against Chinese actors every 12 hours, and its China-related economic espionage caseload has increased 1,300% over the past decade.
The resulting U.S.-China trade deficit is more than $350 billion annually. The deficit’s unabated increase over decades has transferred trillions of dollars of American wealth to our main adversary. In the process it has cost many Americans their jobs as China has used unfair trade practices to destroy various U.S. industries. This has led to lower wages, increased income inequality, and the breakdown of many American communities.
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Good read.