President Biden Holds Virtual Summit With Chinese Counterpart
On Monday evening, November 15, President Joe Biden held a brief, virtual summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping who was just reelected to a third term. While details were still emerging at the time Connecting the Dots was published, we know the two were expected to discuss matters related to trade, climate change, nuclear nonproliferation, and cybersecurity.
Regarding trade, news reports said the Chinese president was likely to press for the United States to reduce Section 301 tariffs on hundreds of products from the country. According to a Bloomberg analysis (subscription required), “Such a request is becoming more acceptable in the U.S. as rising inflation becomes an economic and political issue.”
Regarding industrial metals, the Biden administration has not yet been clear about how, broadly-speaking, it will handle the Trump administration’s Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum. While, as Connecting the Dots reported here and here, the Biden administration has granted and is exploring exemptions from the metals tariffs for certain countries, the White House has given no indication that it prefers a broad-based roll back of the steel and aluminum penalties. It certainly has not indicated it is willing to lift these penalties for products from China. Indeed, the summit followed a pledge by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and European Union officials to look for new mechanisms to address China’s circumvention of trade penalties.
Regarding the two countries willingness to work together to address climate change, it is worth noting the summit followed news that China and the United States had signed a joint agreement on November 10 that pledged the two nations would work together to cut greenhouse gas emissions. In the pact, China also committed for the first time to reduce methane. The two countries also said they would develop additional measures and will meet during the first half of 2022 on methane standards for fossil fuels and landfills and incentive programs for agriculture.