Biden Administration Focuses on Strengthening Trade Relationships with Allies

The Biden administration is taking a new approach to trade. U.S. trade representative Katherine Tai said this week that cooperation with allies would be the foundation for forming stronger trade ties. Tai cites abuses to open markets and low tariffs by countries like China as a reason the U.S. must adapt.

She said the U.S. must confront China’s economic mercantilism. The People’s Republic of China uses “unfair and distortive trade policies,” which lead to harmful and anticompetitive industrial policy objectives. While doing so, she says the U.S. is also bolstering competitiveness with other partners to expand trade flows – a strategy, Tai says, that remains a theme of the Biden administration’s new story on forging fairer and more sustainable trade relationships.

However, farm groups have faulted the Biden administration for not pursuing new trade agreements.

Read more on the administration’s approach to trade here.