President Biden is considering lifting the tariffs imposed by former President Donald Trump on Chinese imports to ease skyrocketing inflation. Residents across the nation are concerned that the U.S. is heading into a recession and several reports have indicated that lifting the tariffs would lead only to a very small, one-time dent in inflation.
According to the Wall Street Journal, former President Trump imposed tariffs between 2018 and 2019 on approximately $360 billion worth of annual Chinese imports to stop China from engaging in unfair trade practices. Biden is considering lifting the tariffs to mitigate inflation, but White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Biden has not yet made a decision.
"We have said from the beginning, some Trump tariffs were irresponsible, and did not advance our economic or national security and instead raise costs for families and businesses," Jean-Pierre said.
Chinese government official Zhang Meifang said in a tweet, "When throwing out the boomerang called "tariff" to #China, the #US perhaps didn't expect to suffer the bitter fruit called 'inflation'."
Biden's decision comes at a time when the nation is concerned about the possibility of a recession.
“Through multiple crises, manufacturers have proven remarkably resilient, but there’s no mistaking there are darker clouds on the horizon. A majority of our surveyed members believe inflationary pressures are making a recession more likely within the next year,” National Association of Manufacturers President and CEO Jay Timmons said, in a statement. “Russia’s war on Ukraine has undeniably exacerbated higher energy and food costs. This, along with record deficit spending since the pandemic began, has created the highest inflation since 1981."
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) pointed out that Trump's tariffs were imposed before 2020, and inflation in the U.S. didn't begin to soar until March 2021, so the tariffs could not have been a primary cause of inflation. The EPI stated that removing the tariffs would have, "at best," a very small, one-time impact on the cost of consumer goods.
A report from the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) states that removing the tariffs on Chinese imports would reduce the consumer price index (CPI) by only 0.26%. "But this one-time drop in the price level would put only a small, short-lived dent in overall inflation," according to the report.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report on June 10, in which it stated that the inflation rate stands at 8.6% for the last twelve-month period, the largest increase since 1981. Energy costs increased by 3.9% during May and 34.6% over the last year. Food costs rose by 10.1% over the last year.
