Washington urged to cancel tariffs

US must stop politicizing trade and business activities between ‘natural partners’, Chinese ambassador says

Sound and healthy trade and economic relations between the United States and China are in the fundamental interests of both nations, China’s ambassador to the US said, urging Washington to cancel tariffs and stop politicizing trade and business.

“We are natural partners, because our economies are highly complementary. Last year, COVID has caused great difficulties to the world economy. But China-US trade performed well,” Qin Gang said in an interview with Forbes published on May 5.

Bilateral trade reached a record high $750 billion last year, a 28.7 percent increase over the previous year. So far, more than 70,000 US companies are investing in China, and 97 percent of them are profitable. The US-China Business Council’s data shows China’s imports from the US increased 21 percent last year.

The ambassador recently visited the US heartland states of Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota, where he met not only chief executives but also farmers and workers on farms and in factory workshops.

“I have a very strong feeling that the sound and healthy China-US trade and economic relations are in the fundamental interests of our two peoples,” Qin said.

Pointing to agriculture as an example, he said China’s imports of US agricultural products increased yearon-year by a remarkable 68 percent in 2021, at more than $38 billion.

“American farmers told me their lives very much depend on their exports to China,“he said.

The ambassador said that all the businesspeople he met were positive about China-US business relations

and they all opposed tariffs; and nobody wanted to leave China.

The tariffs launched by the administration of former US president Donald Trump hurt not only China but also the US, and the tariff war has not reduced the US trade deficit, said Qin.

“On the contrary, it brings more costs to American companies and American consumers. It cost American companies $1.7 trillion, and it cost American household $1,300 each year since the tariffs were taken into effect,” he said.

Analysts said the prospects for removal of tariffs on Chinese goods have brightened, as inflation is at four-decade highs in the US.

Katherine Tai, the US trade representative, said on May 2 in an interview at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles that “all tools are on the table” to effectively deal with rising inflation.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative, or USTR, issued a notice on May 3 about a statutory four-year review of the tariffs on Chinese goods, stating that pursuant to a provision of Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, the two rounds of tariffs are due to expire on July 6 and Aug 23, unless domestic beneficiaries of the tariffs request an extension.

Gary Hufbauer, a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said he expects the USTR to complete the review within three months and grant exclusions from Section 301 tariffs on around half of US imports from China.