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OAN’s Daniel Baldwin
2:08 PM – Thursday, April 18, 2024
President Joe Biden called for tripling tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum when speaking to union workers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This marked a major reversal in policy for Biden, who recently warned that, should former President Donald Trump take office, Trump’s tariff hikes would worsen inflation.
“Look, right now, my U.S. Trade Representative is investigating trade practices by the Chinese government regarding steel and aluminum,” Biden said, “If that investigation confirms these anti-competitive trade practices, then I’m calling on her to consider tripling the tariff rates for both steel imports and aluminum imports from China.”
However, following the most recent Consumer Price Index report of 3.5%, the Biden team warned that inflation would be worse if Trump imposed new tariffs.
“[The Biden team is] turning to a new line of attack: warning voters how much higher inflation could climb if Trump imposes new tariffs,” Axios wrote.
National Press Secretary for the Trump campaign Karoline Leavitt blasted Biden for the apparent about face.
“Joe Biden’s campaign has been attacking President Trump for his very effective tariffs that put American workers first and resulted in jobs returning from overseas throughout his administration, whether it was in our steel and manufacturing industry or our auto industry as well,” Leavitt told One America News, “And now, Joe Biden’s White House is going against their own campaign and is promising to implement new taxes to take a page out of the Trump administration’s playbook.”
Prices have gone up by nearly 19% under Biden’s watch. Biden has also previously criticized Trump’s tariffs in the past before taking office as well.
“Iowa farmers have been crushed by his tariff war with China,” Biden said in 2019, “And no one knows better than the folks in Iowa. He thinks that being tough is great. Well, it’s really easy to be tough when someone else absorbs the pain.”
Biden also tweeted opposition to tariffs in June 2019.
“Trump doesn’t get the basics,” Biden wrote, “He thinks his tariffs are being paid by China. Any freshman econ student could tell you that the American people are paying his tariffs.”
“These tariffs are a last minute attempt to try and appeal to blue collar, hardworking workers that are fed up with Joe Biden’s economic policies,” Leavitt said.
Leavitt emphasized that Biden’s history of being “soft on China” will ultimately hurt the American auto manufacturing industry down the road.
“It’s not going to cut it, because Joe Biden has been soft on China his entire career,” Leavitt said. “He has put China first and American workers last as he is currently doing.”
While serving as Vice President, Biden said he believed that China becoming stronger was a good thing for “the world as a whole.”
“Let me be clear,” Biden said in 2011. “I believed in 1979, and said so, and I believe now that a rising China is a positive development, not only for the people of China, but for the United States and the world as a whole.”
Leavitt attacked Biden’s auto manufacturing policies, specifically his electric vehicle mandate.
“[Biden’s] radical electric vehicle mandate will kill the auto industry in our rust belt in the heartland of this country, and send those jobs over to China,” Leavitt said. “American auto manufacturers cannot afford this radical mandate that will force them to produce more electric vehicles that American consumers cannot afford.”
