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US-China relations
China

Joe Biden accuses China of ‘cheating’ amid call for added steel, aluminium tariffs

  • ‘I’m not looking for a fight with China but competition, fair competition,’ the president tells cheering steelworkers in Pennsylvania
  • Republican candidate Donald Trump has campaigned on protectionism and a pledge to impose a 60 per cent tax on imported Chinese goods

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US President Joe Biden speaks at the United Steelworkers’ headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. Photo: AFP
Mark Magnierin New York
US President Joe Biden criticised Beijing during a campaign stop on Wednesday as he called for a tripling of import tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminium in what analysts characterised as a classic election-year move designed to help win support from union workers in key swing states, analysts said on Wednesday.
The play for votes comes as Biden faces a tough re-election battle in November and tries to avoid looking weak on China or getting outflanked on trade policy by his presumed opponent, Donald Trump, the former Republican president who has campaigned on protectionism and a pledge to impose a 60 per cent tax on imported Chinese goods.

“I’m not looking for a fight with China but competition, fair competition,” he told a cheering crowd at the United Steelworkers union headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. “It ends up dumping extra steel on the global markets at unfairly low prices. And the prices are unfairly low because China’s steel companies don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidising so heavily.

“They’re not competing, they’re cheating.”

US President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event at the United Steelworkers’ headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. Photo: AP
US President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event at the United Steelworkers’ headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. Photo: AP

Biden said under his leadership the script has flipped with America now on the rise, its GDP up and its trade deficit with China at its lowest level in more than decade. This comes as Beijing battles a rapidly ageing population and xenophobia, he added.

“Would you trade places with China?” asked Biden, a Pennsylvania native. “They’ve got real problems.”

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