WASHINGTON, April 17 (Reuters) – Joe Biden is expected to call for a sharp increase in tariffs on Chinese steel industry products on Wednesday, as he announces a package of measures aimed at wooing his voters in the industrial basin of Pennsylvania, a pivotal state in the context of the next American presidential election.
The campaigning US president makes a stop in Pittsburgh, the ‘steel city’, where he is expected to propose raising tariffs already imposed under his predecessor to 25% , Donald Trump, on Chinese products from the production of aluminum and steel.
The imports concerned are currently subject to customs duties of up to 7.5% under Section 301 of the US trade law, a holdover from the Trump era which Joe Biden has ordered to be revised. in 2022.
The Biden administration is also pressuring Mexico to follow its initiative, in order to prohibit China from using it as an intermediary to circumvent these customs measures.
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At the same time, Washington has launched an investigation into Chinese trade practices in the shipbuilding, shipping and logistics sectors, which could lead to the imposition of new customs duties.
These measures, which are to be announced during Joe Biden’s visit to the headquarters of the United Steelworkers union, are likely to provoke a reaction from Beijing, while tensions between the two countries are already very high.
The customs tariffs imposed by Donald Trump during his presidential term, between 2017 and 2021, were followed by retaliatory measures.
Pennsylvania is among half a dozen key states likely to decide the “rematch” between Biden and Trump in the US presidential election next November, as the economy tops voters’ top concerns . (Reporting Trevor Hunnicutt, David Lawder and Andrea Shalal; French version Augustin Turpin, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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