US trade boss set to reassess curbs on Beijing

US Trade Representative Katherine Tai will announce the launch of "a targeted tariff exclusion process" for exemptions from customs tariffs imposed on US$370 billion (HK$ 2.89 trillion) worth of Chinese goods a year by the previous Trump administration.

Tai is set to speak to Chinese Vice Premier Liu He soon, in what will be the first meeting where she will mainly stress China's shortfalls in the agreement struck under former President Donald Trump. Tai is scheduled to lay out the issues in remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

While the Biden administration won't take any tools off the table when dealing with Beijing, a senior administration official stressed that the US doesn't intend to escalate the trade tensions. The official acknowledged that China may not change its practices and therefore the US needs a strategy that takes that into account.

Tai's speech is expected to focus on the Biden administration's approach to the US-China trade relationship and comes after months of internal reviews and deliberations on how to deal with Beijing's economic practices.

The world's two largest economies share the biggest bilateral trade relationship but are at odds on economic, military and political fronts. Flashpoints include billions of dollars in tariffs on each other's goods, US concerns about China using American technology know-how to beef up its military, forced-labor allegations in the Xinjiang region and conflict over supplying next-generation telecommunications equipment to other nations.

US officials say Beijing hasn't lived up to its commitments made under the so-called phase-one agreement of January 2020. Certain parts of the deal are set to expire at the end of this year.

China is far behind its purchasing targets, in which it pledged to buy an extra US$200 billion in US agriculture, energy and manufactured products over the 2017 level in the two years through the end of 2021.

An official said any actions the US may take depend on how China responds to Tai's announcement and request to comply with the deal.

Tai and Liu will engage under the agreement's enforcement mechanism and the US trade chief will also raise US concerns with China's industrial policies that are harming American workers and businesses, the official noted.