President Joe Biden will keep his predecessor’s Phase One trade deal with China intact but plans on pressing the Chinese Communist Party to begin honoring the export commitments outlined by the Trump administration, according to senior administration officials.
The announcement comes after a monthslong review of former President Donald Trump’s China policies, which culminated in the signing of the trade deal in February 2020. United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai will expand on the Biden administration’s new posture during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Monday.
According to her prepared remarks, Tai will “lay out the starting point of our administration’s strategic vision for realigning our trade policies towards China to defend the interests of America’s workers, businesses, farmers and producers, and strengthen our middle class.”
She will specifically inform Beijing that the Biden administration will “enforce” China’s industrial and agrarian commitments per the terms of the Phase One deal, unlike the previous administration.
Senior administration officials told reporters that Biden’s approach to the U.S.’s trade relationship will differ from Trump’s in two specific areas:
- Address China’s failure to uphold trade commitments as outlined in the Phase One deal and enact punitive measures for future failures to fulfill those commitments
- Launch a “targeted tariff exclusion” process and open dialogue with Beijing on goods they wish to include in that list
- Address directly with the Chinese Communist Party concerns regarding their “state-centered and non-market trade practices” not addressed by the Phase One deal
The White House declined to elaborate on what goods might be included in the tariff exemptions but said that Tai would begin rolling out that process in the coming weeks and months. Officials say that list will focus on building economic “resilience and competitiveness,” for both the U.S. and its allies, “diversifying markets, and limiting the impact of Beijing’s harmful practices.”
“As President Biden has said, you know, we believe that there is no better alternative than the long, hard work of direct diplomacy. At the same time, we recognize that Beijing is increasingly explicit that it is doubling down on its authoritarian, state-centric approach and is resistant to addressing our structural concerns,” one senior administration official added. “Consistent with how we’re approaching other aspects of the relationship, we’ll approach the trade relationship frankly, directly, and with the full clarity to express the concerns on the minds of the American people and our allies and partners all over the world.”
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Trump, guided by senior adviser Peter Navarro and then U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, took a significantly more hawkish trade stance on China than his predecessors. Despite vowing on the campaign trail to undo the Trump administration’s China policies, specifically harmful tariffs, Biden instead opted to keep the majority of those policies intact. In some cases, the administration has even added new sanctions and additional punitive measures in efforts to deter some CCP policies, specifically the genocide of Uyghur Muslims in forced labor camps in the Xinjiang province.
This is a developing story and will be updated with new information as it becomes available.
