Falconpowers – US President Joe Biden has called for a tripling of tariffs on some steel and aluminium from China.
It is the latest protectionist policy to be embraced by Mr Biden as he campaigns for re-election against Donald Trump, who was known for his tough trade stance against China.
The White House said the proposal was aimed at protecting US jobs against “unfair” competition.
China has previously denied claims of dumping steel and aluminium overseas.
Dumping is selling excess product in another country for a very cheap price and can often decimate the local industry’s own market of that product.
Speaking to members of the United Steelworkers union in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, the president said the Chinese prices were “unfairly low” due to the government subsidising companies “who don’t need to worry about making a profit”.
“They’re cheating,” Mr Biden said. “And we’ve seen the damage here in America.”
He said tens of thousands of steelworker jobs had been lost in the early 2000s because of Chinese imports.
“We’re not going to let that happen again,” he said.
The Chinese embassy in the US said it “firmly opposes” the measures proposed by Mr Biden
“Many trading partners of the United States, including China, are strongly dissatisfied with the United States’ frequent use of national security, non-market behaviour, overcapacity and other reasons to impose restrictions and politicise trade issues,” embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu said in a statement to the BBC.
Mr Pengyu added he hopes the US will work with China “to stop actions that violate international economic and trade rules” and cancel the tariffs.
The International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday that this kind of geopolitical tension risked damaging global economic growth and pushing inflation in the wrong direction.
The White House has denied that the tariffs – which would lift a key border tax rate from an average of 7.5% to 25% on a tiny fraction of imports – would raise prices in the US.
Mr Biden discussed the proposal – and other pro-manufacturing efforts – at an election rally in Pittsburgh, a key base for the steel industry in the US.
