US president, Joe Biden, raised tariffs on Chinese-made goods sharply in May, claiming that the “Chinese government has cheated by pouring money into Chinese companies … hurting competitors who play by the rules”. The tariffs are 25% on steel and aluminium, 50% on semiconductors and solar panels, and 100% on electric vehicles.
Under Biden’s presidency the US has embarked on an ambitious strategy to revive American high-tech industries and become less reliant on foreign imports, especially from China. This strategy has included pumping massive subsidies into the renewables and semiconductor industries. The tariff hikes are clearly part of this strategy and shouldn’t come as a surprise to those who have followed US trade and industrial policy in recent years.
But the double standards of these policies, particularly the recent tariffs, need to be addressed. For years, Democratic and Republican administrations in the US have touted the virtues of free trade to the rest of the world, working towards establishing a multilateral trading system that limits the use of protectionist policies.
