Biden and Xi Call Didn't Discuss Tariffs' Future
Senior administration officials said that President Joe Biden didn't talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping about whether he wants to make any changes to tariffs on $300 billion worth of Chinese exports over the course of a two-hour call.
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"President Biden explained to President Xi, you know, President Biden’s core concerns with China’s unfair economic practices, which harm American workers and harm American families. But he did not discuss any potential steps he might take with President Xi. And I would -- it would be wrong to believe that somehow a decision on any next steps was somehow waiting for this conversation," the official said.
China's readout of the call emphasized that the U.S. should not be decoupling from Chinese supply chains and that treating the two countries' relations as primarily one of strategic competition would be a mistake. "Recognizing the many challenges facing the global economy, Xi underscored the need for China and the United States to maintain communication on such important issues as coordinating macroeconomic policies, keeping global industrial and supply chains stable, and protecting global energy and food security. Attempts at decoupling or severing supply chains in defiance of underlying laws would not help boost the U.S. economy. They would only make the world economy more vulnerable," said the summary, published by XInhua, a Chinese state-run news outlet.