Republicans and Democrats in the Senate lament statements by President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that US tariffs on Chinese imports are helping record inflation for US consumers.
Senators Rob Portman (R-OH), Sherrod Brown (R-OH), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Kevin Kramer (R-ND), Mike Brown (R-IN), Robert Casey (D-PA), Rick Scott (R-Florida), James Inhofe (R-Massachusetts), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) wrote to Biden asking him to keep US tariffs on billions of dollars of Chinese goods.
“Tariff cuts for China will weaken the US negotiating position, expose many US companies and workers to the risk of a sudden influx of imports, and send a signal to China that it is better to wait for the US than to change its non-market behavior or following the Phase One Agreement,” wrote the senators.
The letter comes after both Biden and Yellen suggested they want to lower US tariffs on China, saying it would reduce inflation for US consumers.
A study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that US tariff cuts will have little or no impact on current inflation, potentially reducing consumer prices by just 0.3 percent one-off.
Senators also criticized Biden and Yellen’s claims that US tariff cuts on China would later reduce inflation:
Finally, will be included in the consumer price index (CPI) and will not cause a significant decrease in inflation. [Emphasis added]
Right . To avoid the huge strategic cost of tariff elimination, and use whatever means you can to defend US rights in the face of China’s unfair economic practices. [Emphasis added]
For years, a Breitbart News analysis showed that the tariffs did not increase prices for Americans. The latest EPI study notes that there is no link between US tariffs imposed by former President Trump and current inflation:
. Most of the tariffs are valid until 2020, but inflation only started to pick up in March 2021. It is clear that many sources other than tariffs cause inflation. [Emphasis added]
Institute of Economic Policy
The Biden administration has already lifted US tariffs on more than 350 Chinese-made goods, a big win for multinationals that have long outsourced production to China.
From 2001 to 2018, the US free trade with China eliminated 3.7 million American jobs in the economy, of which 2.8 million were lost to American manufacturing. During the same period, at least 50,000 American manufacturing plants closed.
This massive unemployment coincides with the growing trade deficit between the US and China. In 1985, before China joined the WTO, the US trade deficit with China was $6 billion. In 2019, the US trade deficit with China was more than $345 billion.
Meanwhile, a 2019 study found that permanent 25 percent U.S. tariffs on all Chinese imports would create more than a million U.S. jobs in five years. American manufacturing, like any manufacturing business, is important to the US economy. supports additional 7.4 US jobs in other industries.
Source: Breitbart
