China ‘accepts’ Joe Biden will not rush to remove Donald Trump’s US trade war tariffs, analysts say
- US President-elect Joe Biden told The New York Times this week that he will not immediately remove tariffs imposed by Trump on China
- China and the US signed the phase one trade deal in January, but tariffs remain on some US$370 billion worth of Chinese goods
US President-elect Joe Biden’s decision to keep the Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese goods for the time being is “acceptable” for China, analysts said.
China and the United States signed a phase one trade deal in January, and the US halved a tariff on US$110 billion of Chinese goods to 7.5 per cent, but 25 per cent tariff on US$250 billion worth of goods remains.
China is mentally prepared, the country has the best expectations for Biden’s China policy, but is prepared for the worst-case scenario at the same time
“From China’s perspective, it is acceptable that Biden has a period of adaptation,” said Wang Wen, executive dean of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at the Renmin University of China.
“China is mentally prepared, the country has the best expectations for Biden’s China policy, but is prepared for the worst-case scenario at the same time.”
“It’s too early to make a call [over Biden’s trade stance on China] and we should keep watching,” said Xu Hongcai, deputy director of the Economic Policy Commission at the Beijing-based think tank, the China Association of Policy Science.
Xu admitted it was within China’s expectations that Biden would not rush to mend trade relations, with domestic issues viewed as a priority for the president-elect, including containing the coronavirus outbreak and supporting the economy.