U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Fox Business on Wednesday that the U.S. expects the current tariffs to continue.
U.S. President Donald Trump introduced 15 per cent global tariffs following the decision by the Supreme Court last week that invalidated some of his tariffs.
“Even right now we have the 10 per cent tariff, it’ll go up to 15 per cent for some and then it may go higher for others. And I think it will be in line with the types of tariffs we’ve been seeing,” he said.
“We want to have continuity in this programme,” Greer added.
He did not name any specific trading partners who might get the higher tariffs but said the new tariffs are compatible with existing trade deals.
On China, he says the Trump administration is aware that China does not have the same market economics as the U.S.
Unprofitable Chinese firms are allowed to stay open and continue producing with government subsidies which is the reason Greer said tariffs on Chinese goods need to remain in place.
“I think that over the past year, we’ve come to an agreement with China. They understand we’re going to have some level of tariffs,” he told Fox News.
“You’ll recall last April, we both escalated to about 145 per cent tariffs. We de-escalated all of that. Since that time, we’ve had anywhere between 35, 40 to 50 per cent tariffs on China, depending on the product.”
“We expect that level to remain in place. We don’t intend to escalate beyond that. We intend to really stick to the deal that we had before,” Greer added.
Greer’s clarification came as Trump is expected to visit China in April where tariffs will take the centrestage.
No Impact on Supreme Court’s Struck Down on Tariffs
Greer said the US’ negotiating position will not be weakened by the Supreme Court’s ruling, and that existing agreements with trading partners will remain in place.
Last week, the Supreme Court struck down 20% tariffs on Chinese goods imposed under Trump’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEPA).
Out of the 35 to 50 per cent tariffs on China, 20 per cent was levied under the IEPA.
That consists of a 10 per cent tariff for China’s role in the U.S.’ fentanyl crisis, while the other 10 per cent is a reciprocal tariff.
However, tariffs on industry-specific products like electric vehicles and solar panels were levied under Section 301 where the rates were usually much higher.
In response to the Supreme Court’s ruling, Trump introduced a global tariff of 15 per cent on all Chinese goods under Section 301 and Section 232, including those industry-specific goods.
This means that if a Chinese exporter wants to export electric vehicles into the U.S., it will have to pay 15 per cent on top of the tariff rate before pre-ruling.
