U.S. tariff review considers commodity shortages, inflation -official
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[May 15, 2021] By
Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Biden
administration is weighing concerns about commodity shortages and
inflation as it reviews trade tariff policy, the top White House
economist said on Friday.
Strong demand for consumer goods and other products in a U.S. economy
still scarred by the coronavirus pandemic have led to shortages in
commodities from lumber to computer chips.
Asked whether tariff reduction would help solve shortages and inflation,
Cecilia Rouse, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers,
told reporters at a press briefing on Friday, "Our trade representatives
are looking at all of these factors." A spokesman for U.S. Trade
Representative Katherine Tai did not respond to a request for comment.
Strong demand for commodities and the higher prices that have resulted
are among the factors stoking fears of inflation.
The United States is the world's largest importer of goods, at some $2.5
trillion in 2019, and any trimming of tariffs to alleviate shortages and
high prices could have widespread repercussions. The United States
currently levies average tariffs of 19.3% on imports from China and 3%
on those from the rest of the world, according to the Peterson Institute
for International Economics.
Import prices rose for a sixth straight month in April, lifting the
year-on-year increase to 10.6%, the most since October 2011, Labor
Department data showed on Friday.
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Cecilia Rouse, who was then Joe Biden's nominee to be chair of the
Council of Economic Advisers, speaks at Biden's transition
headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., December 1, 2020.
REUTERS/Leah Millis
Higher prices on cars, homes and computers, which eat away at incomes and could
derail the economic recovery, have been one of President Joe Biden's key
concerns - along with controlling the pandemic - since he took office in
January.
Yet his administration has so far largely stuck with taxes imposed by the Trump
administration that add to the cost of goods, including steel and aluminum,
imported from abroad. So far, the White House has dismissed signs of inflation
as fleeting.
Lawmakers from both political parties have pressed for relief from those
tariffs, as have companies.
A bipartisan group of 40 U.S. senators asked h Tai last month to start a process
letting U.S. businesses get relief from tariffs on Chinese goods imposed by
Trump.
Rouse suggested that larger considerations than inflation and the current
economic recovery remain at play.
"Trade policy is a much bigger issue and that needs to be worked out in the
context of our global partners and as part of having a really well-running and
efficient global economy," she said.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Editing by Heather Timmons and
Matthew Lewis)
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