In One Sentence

• The White House still declines to offer a timeline for the administration’s completion of the ongoing U.S. trade policy review of China. 
• More business groups have joined the effort to urge the Biden administration to release a comprehensive China strategy regarding trade and tariffs. 
• Calls for a comprehensive and active trade policy regarding China have also been growing louder on Capitol Hill.

Mark the Essentials

• The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) wrote a letter to top officials of the Biden administration, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and USTR Katherine Tai, urging the administration to release a “comprehensive China strategy.”
• This letter by NAM called for the administration’s China trade strategy to include enforcement of the ‘Phase One’ commitments, efforts to engage with Beijing over various trade-related frictions, and a restart of the product-exclusion process for goods hit by Section 301 tariffs.
• Lawmakers, including Sen. Chuck Grassley, have criticized the Biden administration’s lack of a trade agenda, especially with regard to China.

Keeping an Eye On…

• Although engagement with China is gradually being restored, albeit with a number of ups and downs, the Biden administration has done very little thus far to set the tone on the U.S.-China trade policy front. The charitable reason for this tardiness is that the Biden team wants to get its China trade policy right, especially in the context of its comprehensive review of China trade policy that is being conducted—the first in almost fifteen years. The team is also seized of China investment and industrial policy matters. The less charitable reason for this delay is that the Biden team lacks the political courage to take the hard decisions to rescind the politically salient but economically destructive tariffs—in part, due to the Biden team’s own soft protectionist leanings on the matter as well as its linkages with interest groups that benefit from these tariffs. And so, in aiming to thread the needle, the Biden administration is biding its time in order to get its political strategy right, including sorting through the tariff-related demands that will be presented to Beijing. Regardless, the public demand for a clearer trade agenda with China has significantly grown over the past few months as global trade has begun to slowly recover from the pandemic. And without an agenda to manage bilateral trade relations between the world’s two largest economies, rising anxiety—from both business groups and lawmakers—coupled with inconsistencies among its various trade policies will breed an even bigger headache for the administration if left unaddressed. 

Expanded Reading

• NAM Asks Administration to Complete China Strategy Quickly, Restore Section 301 Exclusions, International Trade Today, September 2 [Paywall]
• Businesses Push Biden to Develop China Trade Policy, New York Times, September 1 [Paywall]
• Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jen Psaki, White House, September 1
• Grassley Concerned About Biden’s Lack of Trade Agenda, Brownfield Ag News, August 27