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Well, it’s one way to handle being lied to and cheated.
In the wake of China breaking its Trump era promises to buy more American agricultural products, the House of Representatives is urging President Joe Biden to lower tariffs on billions of dollars in Chinese imports.
That’s right, lower tariffs, not raise or even keep them at current levels.
So far, 140 Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives have signed onto a letter advocating the changes, according to Breitbart.
A bi-partisan group of reps including Jackie Walorski (R-IN), and Suzan DelBene (D-WA), Ron Kind (D-WI) and Darin LaHood (R-IL), persuaded colleagues to sign a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative for more “made in China” goods to escape tariffs.
China Has Never Lived Up To WTO Promises
A decades-long free trade agreement in Washington, D.C., pushed during the Bill Clinton presidency, and signed during the early days of George Bush, which allowed China into the World Trade Organization (WTO), has been disastrous for America.
And part of the reason is that China has consistently failed to meet its promises under the agreement, including things like its communist government providing anti-competitive supports to industries, and China opening its markets to inbound goods and services.
China can tightly surveill and control what their citizens purchase, and punish them via their “social credit system.” So they can technically keep laws off the books, while making sure their own populace favors buying Chinese made products.
Overall, the WTO fiasco resulted in the loss of 3.7 million American jobs between 2001 and 2018.
The Trends Journal has detailed much of the effects of China’s entry into the WTO in stories including:
- “CHINA CHALLENGING U.S. HI-TECH DOMINANCE” (13 Jul 2021)
- “CHINA PUTS CHINA FIRST” (28 Sep 2021)
- “BY LAND AND BY SEA: RE-THINKING OCEANIA” (28 Sep 2021)
- “CHINA WON’T STOP AT TAIWAN, SO WHERE SHOULD AMERICA DRAW THE LINE?” (26 Oct 2021)
- “Celente on China’s rise, America’s decline” (29 Nov 2017)
Former President Trump placed Section 301 tariffs on billions of dollars in Chinese goods in an effort to force China to abide by its agreements. And China eventually responded with pledges to buy very significant amounts of American products, including agricultural goods.
Will Biden Take House Advice?
The Biden administration has said previously that it intends to keep most of Trump’s China tariffs in place. But U.S. Trade Rep Katherine Tai is currently assessing over 500 Chinese-made items that might be exempted from the levies.
Among other House Republicans that have signed onto the letter, are Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Ken Buck (R-CO), Burgess Owens (R-UT) and Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH).
The letter tried to frame the reduction of tariffs as something that would help American businesses:
“Sadly, the Section 301 tariffs have broadly impacted U.S. businesses in the manufacturing, agriculture, fishing, retail, energy, technology, and services industries. These impacts have been strongest for small-and medium-sized enterprises that are less able to absorb the increased cost of tariffs. Section 301 tariffs have also harmed American families and consumers by raising prices on a wide range of consumer products.
“Given this, we strongly urge the USTR to expand its exclusion process as quickly as possible to give American workers, businesses, and families badly needed economic relief.”
One of the major rationales of Trump era economic policy was to try to bring more production of goods and services back to American shores.
As the letter shows, politicians tied to a relative handful of mega tech companies, sports franchises and the entertainment world that really are the major beneficiaries of lax China trade policies, have clearly abandoned the idea of re-shoring industries in America.