Biden Administration Sets Up 'Strike Force' To Go After China On Trade

[Shabibilicious]

Biden administration sets up 'strike force' to go after China on trade

 

FILE PHOTO: Chinese and U.S. flags flutter outside the building of an American company in Beijing

Michael Martina and Trevor Hunnicutt

Tue, June 8, 2021, 5:07 AM

 

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States will target China with a new "strike force" to combat unfair trade practices, the Biden administration said on Tuesday, as it rolled out findings of a review of U.S. access to critical products, from semiconductors to electric-vehicle batteries.

The "supply chain trade strike force," led by the U.S. trade representative, will look for specific violations that have contributed to a "hollowing out" of supply chains that could be addressed with trade remedies, including toward China, senior administration officials told reporters.

 

Officials also said the Department of Commerce was considering initiating a Section 232 investigation into the national security impact of neodymium magnet imports used in motors and other industrial applications, which the United States largely sources from China.

President Joe Biden ordered the review of critical supply chains in February, requiring executive agencies to report back within 100 days on risks to U.S. access to critical goods like those used in pharmaceuticals as well as rare earth minerals, for which the United States is dependent on overseas sources.

Though not explicitly directed at China, the review is part of a broader Biden administration strategy to shore up U.S. competitiveness in the face of economic challenges posed by the world's second largest economy.

"Semiconductors are the building blocks that underpin so much of our economy, and are essential to our national security, our economic competitiveness, and our daily lives," U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Gina Raimondo, who unveil the review at the White House later on Tuesday, said in a statement. Other top U.S. economic officials are scheduled to address reporters at the White House at 1 p.m. (1700 GMT).

The United States faced serious challenges getting medical equipment during the COVID-19 epidemic and now faces severe bottlenecks in a number of areas, including computer chips, stalling production of goods such as cars.

U.S. agencies are required to issue more complete reports a year after Biden's order, identifying gaps in domestic manufacturing capabilities and policies to address them.

TRADE WARS WITH ALLIES NOT WANTED

A senior official said the United States had faced unfair trade practices from "a number of foreign governments" across all four of the supply chains covered in the initial review, including government subsidies and forced intellectual property transfers.

"Obviously, a number of Chinese industrial policies have contributed to vulnerable U.S. supply chains," the official said. "I think you are going to see this strike force focusing in feeding into some of our China policy developments."

The United States was not looking to "wage trade wars with our allies and partners," the official added, noting the strike force would be focused on "very targeted products."

But the senior officials offered little in the way of new measures to immediately ease chip supply shortages, noting in a fact sheet that the Commerce Department would work to "facilitate information flow" between chip makers and end users and increase transparency, a step Reuters previously reported https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/exclusive-facing-chips-shortage-biden-may-shelve-blunt-tool-used-covid-fight-2021-05-05.

In medicine, the administration will use the Defense Production Act to accelerate efforts to manufacture 50 to 100 critical drugs domestically rather than relying on imports.

And to address supply bottlenecks from lumber to steel that have raised fears of inflation, the administration is starting a task force focused on "homebuilding and construction, semiconductors, transportation, and agriculture and food."

Semiconductors are a central focus in sprawling legislation currently before Congress, which would pump billions of dollars into creating domestic production capacity for the chips used in everything from consumer electronics to military equipment.

Biden has said China will not surpass the United States as a global leader on his watch, and confronting Beijing is one of the few bipartisan issues in an otherwise deeply divided Congress.

But some lawmakers have expressed concerns that a package of China-related bills includes huge taxpayer-funded outlays for companies without safeguards to prevent them from sending related production or research to China.

The official said a measure of success of the supply chain effort would be more diverse suppliers for crucial products from like-minded allies and partners, and fewer from geopolitical competitors.

"We're not going to build everything here at home. But we do have to see more domestic manufacturing capability for key products," the official said.

 

https://news.yahoo.com/biden-administration-sets-strike-force-090728608.html

 

GO RV, then BV

[Shabibilicious]

The strongest evidence yet that the neoliberal era is over

Damon Linker, Senior correspondent

Mon, June 7, 2021, 1:22 PM

 

 

 

Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock

Joe Manchin's stance on the filibuster might get a lot more people talking, and negotiations over Joe Biden's spending bills might garner far more attention from the Washington press corps, but a bill poised to pass the Senate on Tuesday by a wide bipartisan margin is arguably a far bigger story than either. The New York Times calls it "the most expansive industrial policy legislation in U.S. history," and it may be the strongest evidence yet that the neoliberal era in American politics is dead and buried.

From the Reagan administration on down through the Obama years, both parties inclined toward favoring free trade. The rationale was two-fold. Dropping barriers to trade — opening markets to goods and labor — would lead to economic growth that would benefit everyone. It would also help to plant seeds of political liberalism in places that had so far resisted the lure of the open society.

The left was always somewhat skeptical of the first claim, because of the tendency of free trade to encourage companies to ship high-paying jobs overseas. Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016 in part by taking up such arguments from the right. Half a decade later, the position has largely carried the day on both sides of the aisle.

 

But what's really tipped the scales is a collapse of faith in the second set of arguments — about the power of open markets to spread political liberalism, with China the main catalyst of the decline. The new bill is primarily about giving the United States an added edge in commercial and military competition with Beijing at a time when China is widely viewed as our greatest geopolitical adversary and economic rival.

No longer believing that free trade will bring China into the fold of the U.S.-led liberal international order, we now firmly favor putting America, and American manufacturing and research, first. That is an enormous change from 20 years ago — and the biggest sign yet that the neoliberal moment in American politics is over, with a new, more nationalist era still rising.

 

https://news.yahoo.com/strongest-evidence-yet-neoliberal-era-172216139.html

 

GO RV, then BV

[MyLadiesDaddy]

What a Crock of 

"Strike Force" What'd he do call the boy scouts? 

Sorry buddy, but none of them even know what gender they are thanks to then lunatic left. 

[md11fr8dawg]

4 hours ago, Shabibilicious said:

Biden administration sets up 'strike force' to go after China on trade

 

FILE PHOTO: Chinese and U.S. flags flutter outside the building of an American company in Beijing

 

Michael Martina and Trevor Hunnicutt

Tue, June 8, 2021, 5:07 AM

 

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States will target China with a new "strike force" to combat unfair trade practices, the Biden administration said on Tuesday, as it rolled out findings of a review of U.S. access to critical products, from semiconductors to electric-vehicle batteries.

The "supply chain trade strike force," led by the U.S. trade representative, will look for specific violations that have contributed to a "hollowing out" of supply chains that could be addressed with trade remedies, including toward China, senior administration officials told reporters.

 

Officials also said the Department of Commerce was considering initiating a Section 232 investigation into the national security impact of neodymium magnet imports used in motors and other industrial applications, which the United States largely sources from China.

President Joe Biden ordered the review of critical supply chains in February, requiring executive agencies to report back within 100 days on risks to U.S. access to critical goods like those used in pharmaceuticals as well as rare earth minerals, for which the United States is dependent on overseas sources.

Though not explicitly directed at China, the review is part of a broader Biden administration strategy to shore up U.S. competitiveness in the face of economic challenges posed by the world's second largest economy.

"Semiconductors are the building blocks that underpin so much of our economy, and are essential to our national security, our economic competitiveness, and our daily lives," U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Gina Raimondo, who unveil the review at the White House later on Tuesday, said in a statement. Other top U.S. economic officials are scheduled to address reporters at the White House at 1 p.m. (1700 GMT).

The United States faced serious challenges getting medical equipment during the COVID-19 epidemic and now faces severe bottlenecks in a number of areas, including computer chips, stalling production of goods such as cars.

U.S. agencies are required to issue more complete reports a year after Biden's order, identifying gaps in domestic manufacturing capabilities and policies to address them.

TRADE WARS WITH ALLIES NOT WANTED

A senior official said the United States had faced unfair trade practices from "a number of foreign governments" across all four of the supply chains covered in the initial review, including government subsidies and forced intellectual property transfers.

"Obviously, a number of Chinese industrial policies have contributed to vulnerable U.S. supply chains," the official said. "I think you are going to see this strike force focusing in feeding into some of our China policy developments."

The United States was not looking to "wage trade wars with our allies and partners," the official added, noting the strike force would be focused on "very targeted products."

But the senior officials offered little in the way of new measures to immediately ease chip supply shortages, noting in a fact sheet that the Commerce Department would work to "facilitate information flow" between chip makers and end users and increase transparency, a step Reuters previously reported https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/exclusive-facing-chips-shortage-biden-may-shelve-blunt-tool-used-covid-fight-2021-05-05.

In medicine, the administration will use the Defense Production Act to accelerate efforts to manufacture 50 to 100 critical drugs domestically rather than relying on imports.

And to address supply bottlenecks from lumber to steel that have raised fears of inflation, the administration is starting a task force focused on "homebuilding and construction, semiconductors, transportation, and agriculture and food."

Semiconductors are a central focus in sprawling legislation currently before Congress, which would pump billions of dollars into creating domestic production capacity for the chips used in everything from consumer electronics to military equipment.

Biden has said China will not surpass the United States as a global leader on his watch, and confronting Beijing is one of the few bipartisan issues in an otherwise deeply divided Congress.

But some lawmakers have expressed concerns that a package of China-related bills includes huge taxpayer-funded outlays for companies without safeguards to prevent them from sending related production or research to China.

The official said a measure of success of the supply chain effort would be more diverse suppliers for crucial products from like-minded allies and partners, and fewer from geopolitical competitors.

"We're not going to build everything here at home. But we do have to see more domestic manufacturing capability for key products," the official said.

 

https://news.yahoo.com/biden-administration-sets-strike-force-090728608.html

 

GO RV, then BV

OMG,OMG,OMG, Xi must be quivering in his communist boots. The Joke is on the warpath!! Duck and Cover!!

[nstoolman1]

Now it's okay to go after China for trade when Trump did it everybody came unglued. Besides Biden's just going to get a phone call from the president of China, tell him to knock it off, and things will go back to where they are right now.

[caddieman]

2 hours ago, ladyGrace'sDaddy said:

What a Crock of 

"Strike Force" What'd he do call the boy scouts? 

Sorry buddy, but none of them even know what gender they are thanks to then lunatic left. 

And this quote says all you need to know!

[Shelley]

1 hour ago, nstoolman1 said:

Now it's okay to go after China for trade when Trump did it everybody came unglued. Besides Biden's just going to get a phone call from the president of China, tell him to knock it off, and things will go back to where they are right now.

I’m sure ole Joe has a side deal worked out with China , with his new globalization Corp tax plan , he’s telling China don’t worry all corps will run to China and if you leave me in office , I’ll help you dominate the world. !!!!

[md11fr8dawg]

As long as that China deal cuts the "Big Guy" in for his 10%, wink wink!!

[Shabibilicious]

Senate passes sweeping China competition bill in rare bipartisan vote

 

Zachary Basu

Tue, June 8, 2021, 6:36 PM

 

 

The Senate voted 68-32 on Tuesday to approve a sweeping China-focused global competition bill, overcoming Republican objections that had threatened to derail the $200 billion+ bipartisan package.

Why it matters: The bill's supporters cite the measure as evidence that the deeply divided Senate can still function on a bipartisan basis, despite the last-minute chaos that forced Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to delay final passage for weeks.

 

• It's also a sign of the widespread consensus that has emerged around the need to outcompete China on the world stage, including by revitalizing U.S. manufacturing and research and cracking down on Beijing's economic abuses.

• Schumer hailed the bill as one of the most significant bipartisan achievements in years, calling its passage "a moment in history that future generations look back on as a turning point for American leadership in the ... 21st century."

 

How we got here: The foundation of the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act is a wide-ranging bipartisan proposal from Schumer and Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) that would authorize new funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and establish a new technology directorate.

• In February, Schumer asked both Democratic committee chairs and their ranking Republicans to work on other measures that could be included in a broader package to bolster U.S. tech, manufacturing and research to better compete with China.

• The resulting $250 billion proposal had input from half a dozen committees, and the Senate voted on dozens of Republican, Democratic and bipartisan amendments over the course of the past several weeks.

• The bill has the backing of President Biden, whose administration has made curbing China's influence through a coalition of allies one of its top priorities.

Details: The centerpiece of the legislation is $50 billion in emergency funding for the Commerce Department to boost domestic semiconductor production, in light of the global chip shortage.

• It also includes billions in extra funding for research and development at the Energy Department, the Pentagon and NASA, including in the areas of artificial intelligence, quantum computing, robotics and 5G.

• The bill would provide $10 billion over five years to Commerce Department to create regional tech hub programs, and require federally funded infrastructure projects to use certain materials manufactured in the U.S.

What they're saying: “Around the globe, authoritarian governments smell blood in the water,” Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor.

• "They believe that squabbling democracies like ours can’t come together and invest in national priorities the way a top-down, centralized and authoritarian government can," he continued. "They are rooting for us to fail so they can grab the mantle of global economic leadership and own the innovations."

What's next: It's unclear what the bill's path will be in the House, where Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) has introduced his own China competition bill.

 

https://news.yahoo.com/senate-passes-sweeping-china-competition-223601278.html

 

GO RV, then BV

[yota691]

[MyLadiesDaddy]

23 hours ago, Shabibilicious said:

Senate passes sweeping China competition bill in rare bipartisan vote

Tells you all you need to know about our leaders. 

[Shabibilicious]

1 minute ago, ladyGrace'sDaddy said:

Tells you all you need to know about our leaders. 

 

Are you suggesting partisan politics is the true path to success in this country?  

 

GO RV, then BV

[MyLadiesDaddy]

23 minutes ago, Shabibilicious said:

 

Are you suggesting partisan politics is the true path to success in this country?  

 

GO RV, then BV

I'm not suggesting anything. I'm saying that anyone who is actually believing there is ANYTHING partisan about our political system is a mind numb robot not even worthy of communication. 

[Shabibilicious]

4 minutes ago, ladyGrace'sDaddy said:

I'm not suggesting anything. I'm saying that anyone who is actually believing there is ANYTHING partisan about our political system is a mind numb robot not even worthy of communication. 

 

Okay then.....mind numb robots beware.  

 

GO RV, then BV