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We are incentivizing a race to the top so that we are not pitting our workers against those in other countries and regions.  Fellow trade ministers tell me that they too want to build their economies from the middle out, and enacting and maintaining high labor standards is key.

This is why the United States has prioritized strong labor commitments in our ongoing trade initiatives, including in our negotiations with Kenya and Taiwan.

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I also want to note that, last year, the United States prevailed at the WTO in the cases against the retaliatory tariffs the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Türkiye illegally imposed in response to the U.S. Section 232 national security actions on steel and aluminum.

These matters are a priority for USTR this year, and enforcement is one way we are fighting for American farmers, ranchers, producers, workers, and businesses.

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Standing up to the PRC’s Unfair Economic Practices and Fighting for Fair Competition

At its core, this is about giving everyone a fair shot.

However, that is not possible when countries like the PRC continue to use non-market policies and practices to dominate industries. That dominance is what enables the PRC to coerce other economies.

The PRC’s unfair policies and practices have devastated many working communities and industries across our country, including many in your districts. 

Steel, aluminum, solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles, and critical minerals—just to name a few.

The PRC also uses unfair policies and practices to concentrate production of certain goods in the PRC, which undermines supply chain resilience and harms consumers that, in the long run, are deprived of the innovation and choice that fair competition would produce.

As the President said during his State of the Union Address, this Administration will continue to stand up to China’s unfair, non-market policies and practices.  And we are doing so with like-minded partners and allies, as you saw in the Joint Declaration we issued last June with Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

We have seen the PRC create dependencies and vulnerabilities in multiple sectors, harming American workers and businesses and creating real risks for our supply chains.

This is why we are taking a serious look at how our existing tools are addressing this problem, including through our four-year review of the China Section 301 tariffs.

This is also why I am closely reviewing the Section 301 petition I received from the five national labor unions regarding the PRC’s acts, policies, and practices in the critical maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sector.

Our economic relationship with the PRC is complex, and as the President said, we want competition with China, not conflict.

But the competition must be fair, and USTR and the Biden-Harris Administration are fighting every day to put working families first, rebuild American manufacturing, and strengthen our supply chains.

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Source: Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), Executive Office of the President

Speaker: Katherine Tai, U.S. Trade Representative

Format: Public Remarks

Link to Original Source