US President Joe Biden is pushing for tariffs to triple on Chinese steel and aluminum, as he seeks to boost union support in the swing state of Pennsylvania.
In a meeting with United Steelworkers union members in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, Biden will call on trade representative Katherine Tai to triple the tariff on the imports from the current average of 7.5 per cent.
Biden’s campaign is trying to shore up support among union workers ahead of November’s US presidential election, in which Pennsylvania could play a decisive role.
“It is important for us to get ahead of China’s new export surge and their continued pressure on prices that make it hard for American steel companies to compete,” said a senior US official, who added that the actions had “nothing to do with elections”.
Tai is nearing completion of a statutory review of the tariffs that former president Donald Trump levied in his trade war against China.
She is also set on Wednesday to unveil a probe into unfair practices in the Chinese shipbuilding industry, following a petition from United Steelworkers.
The US official argued that since imports of Chinese steel were “quite small” at 0.6 per cent of total US steel demand, there would be little impact on inflation, a key electoral concern for Biden.
“We must invest in American manufacturing, but we also have to protect those investments and those workers from unfair exports associated with China’s industrial overcapacity,” said White House national econ…
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