On June 5, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in an interview with CNN that President Biden has asked the Commerce Department to consider canceling some of the tariffs that former President Trump imposed on China in response to the current high inflation.
In the face of the continuing “outrageous” inflation rate, U.S. President Biden has also made it clear many times that fighting inflation is the current top economic task of the United States, and he is discussing whether to cancel tariffs. According to CNBC, on May 10, local time, U.S. President Biden said in a speech to the nation that the White House is evaluating Trump’s tariffs on China and may remove some tariffs to help control rising U.S. consumer prices .
Since last year, the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and other factors overlapping, U.S. inflation continued to climb, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) year-on-year increase has been higher than 6% for six consecutive months, well above the average target of 2% set by the Federal Reserve. In March this year, the U.S. CPI rose 8.5% year-on-year, a record high in 40 years, and in April the CPI also rose 8.3% year-on-year, although a drop from the previous month, but still close to the highest level since the summer of 1982.
And the negative impact of high inflation on the US economy has already emerged. On May 31, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she made a misjudgment in 2021 when she predicted that rising inflation would not constitute persistent trouble, that she was wrong about the trend of inflation and did not fully understand the past few years. The impact of monthly inflation on the U.S. economy. She also warned that “in the future, further shocks cannot be ruled out”.
Curbing inflation is clearly a top priority for the US government.
The Trump administration has imposed tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese imports that have raised prices on a range of goods including clothing, furniture and solar panels.
Some experts and business groups are also calling on the Biden administration to remove tariffs as a way to ease U.S. inflationary pressures.
CNBC reports that the extent to which eliminating Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods would reduce inflation is a matter of debate among economists, but many say easing or eliminating them altogether is one of the few options available to the U.S. government.