Katherine Tai, Joe Biden’s government trade representative, warned that the White House continues to have “serious concerns about the trade practices” of the Xi Jinpíng regime.

The United States Trade Representative plans to announce this Monday the holding “in the next few days” of “open discussions” with the Chinese government to address the application of the bilateral agreement signed in 2020 , according to excerpts from the speech she will deliver before a think tank of his country.

“China made commitments that have to benefit some US industries, such as agriculture, which we must enforce,” Katherine Tai told the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), indicating that Beijing did not comply with everything agreed .

The administration of President Joe Biden is also going to ” initiate a procedure for selective exemptions from customs duties, ” Tai will announce in that speech scheduled for 10 a.m. (local time, 14 GMT).

Between 2018 and 2020, the administration of former President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Chinese products representing $ 370 billion annually. These punitive customs duties, imposed in retaliation for Chinese business practices considered “unfair”, are criticized by many companies.

In early August, major US groups called on the Biden administration to reduce these tariffs, noting that US companies face “increasing cost overruns” as these additional costs are paid by importers.

A US official said that the current tariffs imposed by the Trump administration will remain in effect for the duration of the exemption procedure.

The current president of the United States had asked Katherine Tai to proceed with a global reassessment of Washington’s trade strategy with China.

“We continue to have serious concerns about commercial practices” in China that have not been addressed in phase 1 of the agreement, the ambassador will also indicate, referring to more structural problems, such as massive subsidies to state companies or “theft” of intellectual property.

China had pledged to purchase $ 200 billion worth of supplemental US products over two years, including agricultural products, energy sector goods and manufacturing, with the aim of reducing the trade imbalance between the two countries, favorable to China. The agreement signed in mid-January 2020 between Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He had allowed a truce in the war between the United States and China, which had slowed the growth of both countries .

But this truce has had “modest” results , said the US official who requested anonymity. This official said that the objective “is not to aggravate trade tensions” with China.

However, the United States is willing to use “the full range of instruments” to “defend the economic interests of the country against nefarious policies and practices,” says Katherine Tai’s speech.

” At the core of our strategy is a commitment to ensure that we work with our partners to create fair and open markets ,” he added.

Although Europe takes its distance with a trade policy of the United States of absolute harshness, its leaders do acknowledge that it faces “unfair” trade practices from Beijing.

Washington does not hide that the talks with China will be arduous: “We know that it is unlikely that China will carry out significant reforms at least for the moment,” admits the official.

“Beijing is increasingly explicit about the fact that it is intensifying trends towards its authoritarian and state-centered approach, and is reluctant to respond to our concerns about structural issues,” added the official.

“We must recognize that China cannot change overnight, and that we must have a strategy that takes China into account as it is, and not according to what we would like it to be,” he concluded.

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