Latest China Tariffs Show That Biden Can Be as Protectionist as Trump

Before becoming President, Joe Biden criticized President Trump's tariffs on China. He said that "we're going after China the wrong way” with a trade war. Shortly after becoming president, Biden implemented import quotas on steel. He kept many of Trump's tariffs intact and has managed to collect more in tariffs than Trump did. And if that were not enough, Biden imposed a series of new tariffs this Tuesday, including: 

• Steel and aluminum, from 0-7% to 25%
• Semiconductors, from 25% to 50%
• Electric vehicles, from 25% to 100%
• Batteries and components, from 0-7% to 25%
• Medical syringes and needles, from 0% to 50%

Last month, I illustrated how Trump's 60 percent tariff on China would be tantamount to economic foolishness. In another piece I wrote last August, I showed how Trump's tariffs caused such economic harm as lower employment, reduced GDP, and lower wages. I specifically pointed to how Trump's Section 301 tariffs reduced U.S. real income by $1.4 billion per month (Amiti et al., 2019), which is notable since Biden is using Section 301 to justify this latest round of tariffs. 

What compounds the inanity is that the Biden administration's United States Trade Representative released a report about how harmful Section 301 tariffs are on the same day that he announced that he was going to increase tariffs under Section 301, which would suggest hypocrisy or a lack of situational awareness. If you want to read more analysis, you can read what the Tax Foundation, Reason Magazine, Competitive Enterprise Institute, and American Enterprise Institute, published on Biden's latest tariffs. 

What I can say is this. Biden calling his tariffs "strategic" does not change the economic reality that tariffs harms consumers and the economy as a whole, which is illustrated by this research brief from the Tax Foundation. It is clear that electing Trump would cost billions through his trade war. Much like with Biden’s erroneous take on shrinkflation or attempting student loan "forgiveness," it is a reminder that election brings out ideas that make for better politics than they do better policy. If we do not want to feel the economic pain of tariffs, Congress needs to take back the power it has given to the executive branch to regulate tariffs.