President Joe Biden’s administration has eliminated United States tariffs on more than 350 products made in China, nearly all of which could be made in the U.S. or other countries.
The Section 301 tariffs on billions of dollars worth of China-made products were first imposed by former President Trump after a decades-long free trade consensus in Washington, D.C., that has eliminated 3.7 million American jobs from the U.S. economy from 2001 to 2018.
Late last week, Biden’s U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai announced that after an extensive review process on nearly 550 China-made products subject to U.S. tariffs, the administration would eliminate tariffs on 352 of those products.
The China-made products that will escape U.S. tariffs thanks to Biden include breast pumps, solar water heaters, garage door openers, X-ray tables, and thermostats, as well as food products from China such as crab meat, Dungeness crab, and Alaskan sole.
“Once again, multinational importers and their army of Washington lobbyists have protected their ability to import cheap Chinese goods over sourcing from American manufacturers,” Zach Mottl, chairman of the Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA), said in a statement:
We are disappointed that the Biden administration granted exclusions to the 301 tariffs on many Chinese products that have alternatives that are made or could be made right here in America, or are made outside of China. [Emphasis added]
As China supports and enables Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, we should be decoupling rather than providing their companies revenue from U.S. consumers. We will continue to fight against those in Congress who want to use taxpayer dollars to refund importers that profit off of cheap Chinese goods, as well as efforts to weaken the 301 tariffs despite China’s continued IP theft, rampant government subsidization, use of forced labor, and violation of the Phase One trade deal. [Emphasis added]
As Breitbart News exclusively reported for months, a group of 140 House Republicans and Democrats had been lobbying Biden to cut U.S. tariffs on China-made products.
GOP signatories included House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as well as Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Burgess Owens (R-UT), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Ken Buck (R-CO), Young Kim (R-CA), and Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH).
As Breitbart News Economics Editor John Carney has chronicled for years, there has been little-to-no evidence that U.S. tariffs on China have raised consumer costs for Americans.
A study from 2019 found that permanent U.S. tariffs of 25 percent on all Chinese imports would create more than a million American jobs in five years.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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