Joe Biden considers lifting some China tariffs to fight inflation

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Sunday that US President Joe Biden has asked his team to look at the option of lifting some tariffs on China that were put into place by former US President Donald Trump, to combat the current high inflation.

“We are looking at it. In fact, the president has asked us on his team to analyse that. And so we are in the process of doing that for him and he will have to make that decision,” Raimondo told CNN in an interview on Sunday when asked about whether the Biden administration was weighing lifting tariffs on China to ease inflation.

“There are other products – household goods, bicycles, etc – and it may make sense” to weigh lifting tariffs on those, she said, adding the administration had decided to keep some of the tariffs on steel and aluminium to protect US workers and the steel industry.

Biden has said he is considering removing some of the tariffs imposed on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods by his predecessor in 2018 and 2019 amid a bitter trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

China has also been arguing that tariff reductions would cut costs for American consumers.

Raimondo also told CNN she felt the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage could likely continue until 2024.