President Joe Biden is traveling to Ohio on Wednesday, even as his administration is preparing to lift some of the economic tariffs on China.
The president is expected to journey to Cleveland to talk about the growth of the economy and speak at the Iron Workers Local 17 Training Center.
Recent reports say the president may act as soon as this week to lift billions of dollars of tariffs on China-made goods shipped to the United States.
Corporations have campaigned extensively to get Biden to lift tariffs, citing record-high inflation as a reason for doing so.
But economists estimate lifting tariffs will have a very little immediate impact on consumer prices.
Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH), who is running for Senate in Ohio, lambasted the president in June for even considering the idea.
“Letting up on a communist government that’s made it their decades-long mission to undercut American manufacturing isn’t how we bring costs down,” he wrote on social media. “It’s these kinds of irresponsible trade policies that got us here in the first place.”
Ryan, however, previously opposed Trump’s tariffs on China. In 2018, he criticized Trump for inflicting “maximum damage on the U.S. economy for minimal gain.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday no decision had been made on tariffs, but criticized former President Donald Trump for imposing tariffs on China “in such a haphazard way, in a non-strategic way.”
“We are — want to make sure that we have the right approach,” she said.
Trump lambasted Biden in a statement about his plan to lift tariffs, calling the idea the “greatest gift” to China.
“Taking these Tariffs off would be a clear signal that the United States is weak, ineffective, and doing business as usual,” he wrote.