Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has made it clear that the Biden administration is considering easing tariffs on Chinese goods in a bid to contain inflation in the US, where it hit a 40-year high in March and is expected to escalate in the coming months.
"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,” she said in an interview with CNN on Sunday when asked whether tariffs on Chinese products might be relaxed.
In 2018, the Trump administration slapped a spate of tariffs on steel, aluminium and some products from China worth $350 billion to counteract what Washington dubbed Beijing's unfair trade practices. The Chinese side denied the allegations.
Yellen’s Sunday comments came after she acknowledged last week that her earlier predictions inflation would be “transitory” in the US proved erroneous.
“I was wrong about the path inflation would take. There have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy that have boosted energy and food prices and supply bottlenecks that have affected our economy badly that at the time I didn't fully understand. But we recognise that now”, Yellen told CNN.
A Treasury spokesperson later clarified that the shocks that Yellen referred to and could not anticipate were the emergence of new COVID variants, coronavirus lockdowns in China and Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, that has been under way since 24 February.
This followed President Joe Biden outlining the White House’s new three-part plan to fight the soaring inflation levels in his op-ed for The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), describing the matter as his “top economic priority”.
The plan, which largely calls on the Federal Reserve and Congress to handle inflation, was even bashed by members of Biden’s own party as lacklustre.
House Democrat Ro Khanna, for his part, stressed he supports “the president’s efforts” to tackle inflation, but that the Biden administration needs “a bolder vision and faster action”.
“To meet the moment, Mr. Biden should convene an emergency task force empowered to lower prices and address shortages. We need an all-out mobilisation, not just a few ad hoc initiatives reacting to headlines,” Khanna pointed out.
The inflation in the US started reaching heights not seen for decades in November 2021, coming almost half a year after the passing of Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. It was the last major COVID-related relief package passed by the US and the one that the Republican Party strongly opposed, including due to inflation concerns.
Adding to inflation are US gasoline prices that hit record highs of $4.33 a gallon on average in March, coming on the heels of the Western sanctions imposed on Russia due to its special operation in Ukraine. Biden has repeatedly pointed the finger at Moscow over soaring growing gasoline prices, but at the same time acknowledged in a WSJ piece that US and EU sanctions policies are to blame for higher energy prices because "Russian oil, gas and refining capacity are off the market".
POTUS referred to his administration’s decision in early March to ban Russian oil, natural gas and coal imports to the US in response to Moscow’s special operation. The EU, in turn, agreed in late May on an embargo that president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said “will effectively cut around 90% of oil imports from Russia to the EU by the end of the year”.