Would pursue trade policies showing progress on China's abusive practices, says Biden
Dec 02, 2020
Washington [US], December 2 : US President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday said his goal as President would be to pursue trade policies, which are actually more progressive on China's abusive practices like stealing intellectual property, dumping products, illegal subsidies to corporations and forcing tech transfers from American companies to their Chinese counterparts.
In an interview with New York Times, Biden remarked that it was all about 'leverage', which in his view, the US did not have.
On China, the President-elect said he would not act immediately to remove the 25 per cent tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, or the Phase 1 agreement Trump had inked with China, that required Beijing to purchase around USD 200 billion in additional US goods and services during the period 2020 and 2021, in which China has fallen significantly behind on.
"I'm not going to make any immediate moves, and the same applies to the tariffs...I'm not going to prejudice my options," said Biden.
He said he first wants to conduct a full review of the existing agreement with China and consult with the country's traditional allies in Asia and Europe, in order to develop a coherent strategy, reported New York Times.
"The best China strategy, I think, is one which gets every one of our -- or at least what used to be our -- allies on the same page. It's going to be a major priority for me in the opening weeks of my presidency to try to get us back on the same page with our allies," he said.
Trump had used the tariffs on Chinese imports as a negotiating tactic, meant to hurt the Chinese economy and pressure Beijing to agree to a new trade deal that addresses unfair trade practices, such as intellectual property theft and forced technology transfers.
The phase 1 agreement deal was signed between the two countries, which was expected to ease tensions between the two countries following a bitter trade war.
However, since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, both US and China have been at loggerheads and tensions between the two have escalated.
