View this email in your browser

**JULY 19, 2021**

Kuttner on TAP

China Policy: The Administration's Mixed Signals

****

Donald Trump had a grand total of two (2) semi-competent policies. One
was throwing a lot of money at vaccine makers. The other was taking a
harder line with China. Both policies left a lot to be desired in their
details, but they were directionally correct.

The core of Trump's China policy was 25 percent tariffs on $250
billion worth of China's exports. This was a blunt instrument, and its
impact did not exactly track with China's most abusive export
subsidies, but the order of magnitude was about right.

Some trade experts referred to this as a "dirty 301." Let me explain.
Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act allows the U.S. to retaliate against
foreign subsidies and other trade practices that violate norms of free
and fair trade. But the process is cumbersome, the WTO brands unilateral
actions as unfair trade practices, and for the most part U.S.
administrations haven't used it much.

The tariffs are a rough proxy for the 301 process. Without them, the
U.S. auto and steel industries would be in far worse shape, due to
China's predatory trade practices.

For now, Biden's trade officials, led by U.S. Trade Representative
Katherine Tai, have recommended leaving the tariffs in place as leverage
for comprehensive bargaining with China down the road. But last week,
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen took a very different view.

In an interview with The New York Times
,
Yellen said that the tariffs "hurt American consumers," adding that they
"didn't address in many ways the fundamental problems we have with
China."

Well no, of course they didn't. But they are useful leverage in
pursuit of addressing the fundamental problems, and in the meantime they
function as a stand-in.

I mostly have a lot of regard for Yellen. Having her at Treasury sure
beats having a Wall Street revolving-door hack. But this view of China
policy is an alarming throwback to naïve globalism.

I hope Katherine Tai threw a fit and that someone at the White House
clued in Yellen to what Biden's China policy is. The administration
cannot be coherent or credible, in Beijing or anywhere else, if its top
people contradict each other.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter

Robert Kuttner's latest book is
The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy
.

[link removed]

Biden Executive Order Could Finally Lower Drug Prices

Several tools could lower prices directly-and serve as an indirect
incentive to get Congress to act. BY DAVID DAYEN

Pfizer's Bottom Line

As the pharmaceutical company makes a pitch for booster shots,
epidemiologists question its motives and worry boosters might stymie
global vaccine efforts. BY AMELIA POLLARD

High Hurdles for Commonsense Cannabis Reform

The plan unveiled by the Senate majority leader is doomed to languish
despite massive public support for legalization. BY GABRIELLE GURLEY

Haitians Don't Need Another President Chosen Behind Closed Doors

Beyond the crisis of the president's assassination, there's the
crisis of no democratic legitimacy. Here's how to remedy that. BY JAKE
JOHNSTON

To receive this newsletter directly in your inbox, click here to
subscribe. 

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

YOUR TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION SUPPORTS INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM

Copyright (c) 2021 The American Prospect. All rights reserved.
_________________

Sent to [email protected]

Unsubscribe:
[link removed]

The American Prospect, Inc., 1225 I Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC xxxxxx, United States