Congressional Democrats Back President’s Call For Higher Tariffs On China

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and a group of Democrats in the upper chamber of Congress recently sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking that his administration increase tariffs on products from China. The letter, available here, comes after President Biden asked the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to explore tripling penalties on most products from the communist nation, including industrial metals products.

“Keeping the tariffs in place and increasing the tariffs where necessary maintains a critical piece of a pro-worker trade agenda,” the senators argued. Reductions, on the other hand, would allow “China to gain a competitive advantage over hardworking Americans.”

Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.),  Sen. Bob Casey (D-Penn.), Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.), Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), and Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) also signed the letter.

“China has continued to cheat, circumvent, and manipulate to artificially strengthen its economy and harm the United States. Across sectors like steel, solar products, and electric vehicles, China employs tactics to distort markets and create artificially low prices by illegally subsidizing its industries and producing to overcapacity,” the senators also noted. “These practices disrupt global product demand and supply chains and threaten the goals of the United States’ industrial policy. Our communities are left reeling from the impact.”