U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo speaks and answers questions from reporters during the daily press briefing in the White House briefing room, April 7, 2021.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters at the White House Wednesday (April 7) that the Trump (Trump) administration’s tariffs on steel and aluminum have saved jobs in the U.S. steel and aluminum industry.
“On tariffs, tariffs have their place. The 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum have in fact helped save jobs in the U.S. steel and aluminum industries.” Raimondo said this marks a rare instance of the Biden administration agreeing with the Trump administration’s policies on this point.
“So, what do we do with tariffs? We have to level the playing field. If the playing field is level, no one can beat the American worker.” Raimondo continued.
“The truth is that the actions of the Chinese Communist Party are uncompetitive, coercive and underhanded (underhanded). They have proven that they will do whatever it takes. So I will use all the tools at my disposal as aggressively as I can to protect American workers and businesses from the unfair actions of the Chinese Communist Party.”
President Trump (Trump) implemented Section 232 in March 2018 to protect the U.S. steel and aluminum industries by imposing tariffs of 25 percent and 10 percent on imports of steel and aluminum, respectively, for national security reasons. However, some countries are exempt from the tariffs under the clause. Currently, South Korea, Argentina, Australia and Brazil are permanently exempted. Tariffs on Canada and Mexico were also eliminated with the signing of a trade agreement between the U.S. Mexico and Canada.
In the same month of 2018, Trump launched a U.S.-China trade war, imposing tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods. The Chinese Communist Party responded with retaliatory tariffs and the tit-for-tat between the two sides has escalated since then. Trump believes the tariffs are necessary to force the CCP to abandon its unfair trade practices and pay for years of rampant intellectual property theft.
Trump has also targeted private Chinese companies over national security concerns, including the possibility that large amounts of data on Americans could be turned over to Beijing.
Raimondo’s comments came in response to questions from reporters, who also prompted her to clarify the Biden administration’s position on TikTok, a social media app that Trump has threatened to ban unless the Chinese company that owns it, sells its U.S. business to an American company.
“So I would say that’s my general view and I don’t want to get into the details of any particular company,” Raimondo said, “My general view is that what we do on offense is more important than what we do on defense.”
To compete with China in the long run, she said, “we need to rebuild America in all the ways that we’re talking about today, and by the way, do it with our allies. We have to work with our allies and find common ground where we can.”
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