The White House faced questions Friday about President Joe Biden‘s new tariffs on Chinese goods, just days after Vice President Kamala Harris went after former President Donald Trump‘s proposed tariff increases.
Trump has pledged to institute tariffs as high as 20% on all imports, a plan which Harris dubbed the “Trump sales tax” during their Tuesday presidential debate. The majority of economists say that Trump’s proposal would effectively raise costs for consumers and could drive the country into a recession.
A flat, 20% tariff on all imports could raise annual costs by nearly $4,000 for middle class households, according to the Center for American Progress Action.
Still, the Biden administration announced a series of new tariffs on Chinese imports, specifically aimed at boosting the domestic vehicle industry.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked why Biden’s tariffs don’t amount to a sales tax on American consumers, as she claims Trump’s tariffs would provide.
Jean-Pierre claimed that Biden’s policies are about countering “China’s unfair trade practices.”
She proceeded to accuse the Trump administration of failing to reverse the U.S. trade deficit with China before claiming that Biden brought the “annual trade deficit with China” to its “lowest” point in a decade. Still, Jean-Pierre could not specifically say why this new tariff package won’t raise costs for American households.
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“Look, what we’re trying to do is making sure that we’re protecting American workers and businesses. That’s what we’re doing,” she countered. “What we’re trying to do is eliminate China’s unfair practices, and we’ve seen the results of that. That was the commitment that this president made in May, and that’s the commitment that will continue. This is about American workers and businesses, and we’re going to certainly continue to deal with China‘s unfair trade practices.”
You can watch the briefing in full below.
