President Biden Proposes Tripling Section 301 Tariffs On Metals Products From China

In Pennsylvania last week, President Joe Biden President suggested his administration would soon triple Section 301 tariffs on steel and aluminum products that are imported into the United States from China. The current average tariff on these products is 7.5 percent. The president wants the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to investigate and “consider” raising the levies to 25 percent.

As National Public Radio noted, steel and aluminum imports from China also are subject to Section 232 tariffs, so if the USTR follows through on President Biden’s request, Chinese steel would face tariffs of around 50 percent while Chinese aluminum products would face tariffs of approximately 35 percent.

The president also directed his trade senior team to work with their counterparts from the Mexican government to jointly prevent China and other countries from evading U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum products that are imported from Mexico into the United States.

“American workers continue to face unfair competition from Chinese imports of steel and aluminum products,” a White House fact sheet said. “Chinese policies and subsidies for their domestic steel and aluminum industries means high-quality U.S. products are undercut by artificially low-priced Chinese alternatives produced with higher emissions.”

The fact sheet also noted that, since President Biden took office, the U.S. Department of Commerce has imposed more than 30 anti-dumping and countervailing duties on steel products from China and has conducted 27 investigations into anti-competitive actions and efforts by Chinese exporters to evade trade rules.

Chinese officials quickly reacted to President Biden’s remarks, saying they would take legal action to defend the country’s practices against what it called “unreasonable” and “discriminatory” penalties. Read more here.