The Latest from the Prospect
 â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â
Â
View this email in your browser
**APRIL 27, 2022**
Kuttner on TAP
****
****
****
****
****
****
****
**** Weakening China Tariffs Will Not Relieve Inflation
Some in the administration are again pushing for tariff cuts. Their
approach is bad economics and worse politics.
On Friday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reiterated her call for
easing tariffs on some made-in-China goods. This followed even more
pointed comments Thursday from Deputy National Security Adviser Daleep
Singh that duties on consumer goods "serve no strategic purpose."
"For product categories that are not implicated by [supply chain]
objectives, there's not much of a case for those tariffs being in
place," he said
.
"Why do we have tariffs on bicycles or apparel or underwear?"
These comments incensed Tim Ryan, who is running to take back a Senate
seat in Ohio, where Huffy bikes used to be made by Ohio workers.
"Lifting tariffs on so-called 'non-strategic' goods from China would
be a major mistake, doing nothing to ease inflationary pressures on
American consumers and rewarding a human-rights abusing, communist
government for years of cheating American workers and stealing jobs," he
told the
**Prospect** in an email. "I will fight like hell against any move-by
either political party-that incentivizes predatory trade practices
that put China ahead of our workers."
Nor did the remarks sit well with Ambassador Katherine Tai, the U.S.
trade representative, who has resisted efforts for a wholesale reduction
in tariffs on Chinese goods. At a hearing of the House Ways and Means
Committee last month, Tai warned
that lifting tariffs now would undermine U.S. bargaining leverage, but
do little to reduce inflation.
"No negotiator walks away from leverage, right?" she said. The tariffs
are not ends in themselves, but part of a U.S. reset of China policy.
In a column last December, after the push to cut tariffs as
anti-inflation medicine first surfaced, I ran the numbers
and found that the effects would be trivial. In January, even the
Peterson Institute, one of the most fervent advocates of free trade,
reported that the impact of tariffs on Chinese goods on inflation was
marginal
.
There have been conversations inside the administration about better
focusing tariffs against Chinese goods, to better target
strategic sectors such as semiconductors. In exchange, some other
tariffs might be cut. But last week's comments from Yellen and Singh
were not part of those deliberations, which have been on ice due to
China's unhelpful role in the Russia-Ukraine War.
The White House is also in a jam because Republicans are said to be
preparing a letter demanding tariff cuts to fight inflation. If the
administration were to follow that course now, it would only look like
it was succumbing to Republican pressure.
After some fierce pushback from defenders of a resolute China policy, my
sources say the White House walked back the comments from Yellen and
Singh as merely a trial balloon. A lead balloon, maybe. But this fight
is far from over, and the trench warfare continues.
****
~ ROBERT KUTTNER
To receive this newsletter directly in your inbox, click here to
subscribe.Â
Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter
[link removed]
Biden Joins D.C. Establishment in Endorsing Corporate Democrat
Kurt Schrader not only got the president's only endorsement thus far
in the 2022 cycle. Local Democrats have accused the DCCC of
surreptitiously helping him, too. BY DAVID DAYEN
A Community Hospital in Deep-Red Wyoming
After significant cutbacks and tragedies at their private equity-owned
hospital, the community of Riverton, Wyoming, tried something different.
BY MAUREEN TKACIK
Meet the Organizations Fighting for Zero-Emissions Freight
A coalition of community-based groups has come together to demand reform
of a sector that has had a disproportionately negative impact on
communities of color. BY RAMENDA CYRUS
[link removed]
Â
Click to Share this Newsletter
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
YOUR TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION SUPPORTS INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM
The American Prospect, Inc.
1225 I Street NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC xxxxxx
United States
Copyright (c) 2022 The American Prospect. All rights reserved.
To opt out of American Prospect membership messaging, click here
.
To manage your newsletter preferences, click here
.
To unsubscribe from all American Prospect emails, including newsletters,
click here
.
