Joe Biden’s announcement of new China tariffs is only the latest example of two trends in the Biden administration: talking tough on China but not following it up with meaningful policy, and bending over backward to appease organized labor.
Taxes will increase on imported steel, semiconductors, and electric vehicles and battery materials from China. The tariffs are being justified under the federal law that allows the president to respond to other countries’ unfair trade practices.
The White House says the tariffs will cover $18 billion worth of goods combined. That’s not nothing, but for perspective, $18 billion is equal to 4 percent of total U.S. imports of goods from China last year. Biden’s claims to be protecting American workers and businesses in general with such actions are hard to take seriously.
Instead, he’s protecting a few industries that are already closely tied with government. The steel industry is the largest beneficiary of protectionist policy, spending millions on lobbying to keep it that way, and Biden’s latest move is just more of the same. American businesses pay some of the highest prices in the world for steel, driving up costs for the customers of all the goods made with that basic metal.
The semiconductor industry is already set to be on the receiving end of billions in corporate welfare through the CHIPS Act and other federal efforts. Despite the act’s having been passed almost two years ago, nearly all the money from that law — justified as a national-security priority — has yet to be distributed, and projects that are already under way have been hamstrung with new regulations and have had a difficult time finding qualified workers. But more government favors will surely right the ship.
Especially since the industry bailouts during the financial crisis, the automobile industry has been very comfortable as a lap dog for government, cheering for more regulations on emissions standards and the “energy transition.” Now it will get a 100 percent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles, which are basically never sold in the U.S. to begin with. And the sourcing of EVs wouldn’t be such a pressing problem if the federal government and the government of the most populous state weren’t mandating their sale.
China’s $18 trillion economy isn’t going to miss $18 billion, assuming the Biden administration’s estimate is correct, so the claim that these tariffs are somehow striking a major blow to a strategic adversary is laughable. That also means they won’t impose a major cost on U.S. consumers, at least directly. Chinese retaliation could increase the damage down the road.
The policy is in keeping with the Biden administration’s overall approach to China, which has included a lot of tough talk and occasional action but which consistently fails to produce any meaningful consequences for the regime’s wrongdoing.
After waiting for days, Biden finally did order the Air Force to shoot down the alleged Chinese spy balloon floating over the U.S., but the administration has so far refused to release the FBI’s analysis of the balloon and took over a year to implement any new sanctions for this violation of American airspace.
On the contrary, the administration has removed sanctions from the Institute for Forensic Science, part of China’s Ministry of Public Security and implicated in the ongoing Uyghur genocide, in exchange for getting China to the table on its role in fentanyl supply chains. Except that now we know, courtesy of a report from the House Select Committee on the CCP, that China has continued to support fentanyl-precursor companies, and government officials have even praised them.
And the administration persists in the delusion that China can be a partner on climate policy, despite China’s accelerating its construction of coal power plants and destroying its own natural environment in much the same way that previous communist regimes have. Playing nice with the world’s foremost environmental destroyers in the name of climate change is a bit like playing nice with the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the name of peace — which the Biden administration is also doing with its Iran policy.
Like other seemingly nonsensical government policies from Biden, these tariffs at least make a little more sense when you understand them as political favors to labor unions. The AFL-CIO, United Steelworkers, and the BlueGreen Alliance (a coalition of unions and environmentalist groups whose members include the United Auto Workers, Sierra Club, American Federation of Teachers, SEIU, and Natural Resources Defense Council — it’s all one progressive movement) were effusive in their praise of Biden’s announcement.
Biden is clear that his radical environmental policies, including pushing electric vehicles on a scale that the public does not desire, are all part of his plans to boost organized labor, constantly touting the “union jobs” that his environmental schemes will create. He no doubt thinks union voters will be important to his efforts to win swing states such as Michigan and Pennsylvania in the upcoming election and will do nearly anything to win their applause.
That just doesn’t have a lot to do with the general interests of the American people, a point further reinforced by Biden’s decision to keep the Trump administration’s tariffs, which have a much larger economic impact, despite years of evidence that they are not effective at creating manufacturing jobs, invited retaliation that harmed American farmers, and have raised prices for Americans. Biden is protecting industries close to government while performing for his pals in organized labor, not being tough on China.