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US Trade Representative Katherine Tai and India's Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal relaunch the US India Trade Forum for a winning partnership as Tai visits New Delhi in November 2021. 

LyrArc Article Gist
 A look up close at US Foreign Trade Representative Katherine Tai, focused on a trade policy that is fair to American workers and workers families. She says "I'm a bicultural kid." One of two children of immigrants in the Biden cabinet, the other Kamala Harris.  With Jake Sullivan and Biden doing everything so that American trade and supply chains are based on pillars of resilience, fairness, respect for American workers and families, to support climate change action and build infrastructure. She has been with the US Office of the Trade Representative and in trade related positions in US Congress since 2007. Tai says what helps is bringing a very disciplined approach, as she deals with the PRC to stay on the message, on what the problem is. As she goes about her work the spirit from her dad carries her everyday- "to go out and win it" for America, for the common people of America. ...

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This interview of David Westin with Katherine Tai at the Aspen Institute shows how this US Foreign Trade Representative reflects today's priorities based on an entirely different environment than what was faced before- after the pandemic, after concern about supply chains, the effect on workers, the domestic economy, and on democracy of trade policies, the effects of AI. Westin says "You are US FTR, you travel abroad cover the globe literally, it covers geopolitics.." Katherine Tai makes it clear from the beginning- "It is all about domestic, I do as much domestic travel as foreign travel. We sit at the interconnection of very very complex forces.Trade absolutely is about economics. The decisions we make in trade policy impacts the domestic economy. We are part of foreign policy, we are equally a part of domestic economic policy team. These two are pulling you in opposite directions. This foreign aspect has to be connected to what we do at home." Four pillars the Biden administration has for trade all relate to the domestic economy- for infrastructure, climate change action, workers and manufacturing at home, democracy and resilience. It is worker centric for workers in the US economy and the economy of its partners, Tai points out that it is in the interest of the other countries that trade with US to give fair wages and benefits to their workers, not something that they do for the US.     ...

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US Representative Katherine Tai sets out the policy of the Biden administration on trade with China. The policy is simply to keep Trump administration policy on tariffs in place and seek dialogue with China. This report in the WSJ explains what this means.  The Biden administration is preparing a long term policy to restore American leadership in the world in technology, trade and industry. This means as in semiconductors providing $52 billion to assist US firms to make semiconductors at home. The US will build a new supply chain that is resilient and brings more of the critical technologies in manufacturing back to the US. Where Mr. Trump was the initiator of a new policy on trade but lacked a long term vision Mr Biden is giving the Trump policies new vigor and shape and a long term vision of belief in America's role in the world. He is doing this by building on America's key strength - its people. The only way to do this is to invest massively after three decades of disinvestment under previous administrations. This comes in the shape of the $3.5 trillion plan for infrastructure and the Families and Workers Plan. Biden is also building stronger relationships with allies Australia, Britain, Japan, India, and Germany for trade, supply chain, and defense.   ...

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This report in WSJ looks at the impact of the 2018 Trump tariffs retained by president Biden as the US seeks to reduce its overdependence on Chinese imports and bring back American manufacturing. This followed misguided policies of previous administrations since Clinton that weakened American manufacturing strengths. Have the US tariffs on Chinese goods worked? The WSJ graph with information from US Census Bureau shows that imports from China in 2022 going down to the levels in 2007 of about 16-17% as a share of US imports, down from a high of 21% before the Trump tariffs halted a rapidly rising curve. Imports from Germany, South Korea and Japan in 2022 were down slightly hovering around 4.5%. Imports increased from Canada and Mexico, the US's traditional partners in North America, around 13.5% as a share of US imports for each country. Also increasing were imports from Vietnam. Some of the imports from Vietnam are Chinese products shipped through Vietnam to evade tariffs, and it is not clear whether the figures from Vietnam have been adjusted for this. President Biden is looking at different scenarios in an effort to tackle inflation. One supported by Janet Yellen, an economist at US Treasury is for the US to relax some of the China tariffs. Most economists in previous administrations including Yellen failed to understand what surrendering American manufacturing to China on the scale and speed that happened would do to communities across America that depended on factory jobs. The devastation of these communities has led to increased divisions in America, weakened American manufacturing, and led to outflow of technologies vital for national security and national well being.  Republican senators, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan are opposed to any relaxation of tariffs. Studies show the removal of the tariffs would have only a small impact on the consumer price inflation index reducing inflation by 0.26%. Lifting some tariffs on school supplies and summer bicycles as proposed by the US Chamber of Commerce would have little or no impact on the consumer price index for inflation. This is because the inflation is triggered by oil and gas price increases stemming from the Russian policies and invasion of Ukraine. This has also aggravated food and grocery costs  through blocking of agricultural imports from Ukraine. An additional factor was the increased demand after the pandemic easing in 2022, but that demand is already easing in July with glut in inventories at Walmart and Target, and excess warehouse capacity at Amazon. It would also send the wrong signal to China that the tariffs imposed by president Trump after a Section 301 trade investigation and based on improper loss of technologies to China are not being taken seriously by the US, says Republican Senator Hagerty of Tennessee. The Labor advisory committee to the US Trade Representative Katherine Tai also opposes any such move after the serious damage done to US workers and to US national well being and security. This happened under the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations with failed trade policies that ceded manufacturing to China. ...