Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's senior adviser Tony Blinken said on Tuesday that it is unrealistic to "fully decouple" from China.
Speaking at an online event hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce, Blinken added that in the event of Biden’s election win in early November, his team would look to “reset terms” of economic and technology ties with China, but that it would fight unfair practices.
According to the adviser, if elected, Biden would use tariffs-related issues to aggressively enforce US trade laws. Blinken said that the former Vice President would also seek to end the "artificial trade war" between the US and the EU, while also trying to grapple with imbalances in bilateral agricultural trade.
On the Chinese-US relations, Blinken described the Beijing-Washington Phase One trade deal as “a debacle”, which he said had failed to tackle systemic issues.
The sides clinched the so-called Phase One agreement in mid-January, a document which was supposed to become a first step towards normalising the two countries' trade relations amid the sides’ tariff spat.
However, ties between the two deteriorated once again after President Donald Trump accused China of being responsible for starting the global coronavirus pandemic, allegations that were vehemently denied by Beijing.
Trade tensions between the US and China escalated in August 2019 as China said that it would apply tariffs ranging from 5 to 10 percent on $75 billion worth of US goods and a 25-percent duty on US cars.
The move followed Washington's decision to impose tariffs of an additional 10 percent on $300 billion worth of Chinese imports.