U.S. Tariffs on China Provide Negotiating Leverage, Trade Chief Says

(Bloomberg) — U.S. tariffs on more than $300 billion of annual imports from China provide significant leverage and are useful from a negotiating standpoint, President Joe Biden’s trade chief said amid a debate within the administration on whether to keep the duties in place.

“The China tariffs are, in my view, a significant piece of leverage, and a trade negotiator never walks away from leverage,” U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said Wednesday at a Senate hearing in response to a question from Senator Bill Hagerty, a Tennessee Republican, about whether removing the duties would encourage “more bad behavior” by Beijing.