Trade: Biden administration to counter Beijing's "abusive" practices

The United States will deploy a large arsenal of tools to counter

Beijing's

“abusive”

,

“unfair”

and

“illegal” practices

, future Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Tuesday during her grand oral before American senators .

Read also: Trade war: new tensions between China and the United States

The former president of the American Central Bank (Fed) was questioned on the attitude that the Biden administration would adopt vis-à-vis Beijing after a trade war between the two largest economies in the world under the Trump era.

"We must tackle China's abusive, unfair and illegal practices,"

said Janet Yellen, echoing accusations made by outgoing President Donald Trump and his administration.

Janet Yellen believes like her predecessor, Steven Mnuchin, that these practices harm American companies, citing trade barriers,

"illegal"

subsidies

to companies.

Beijing

"steals intellectual property and engages in practices that give it an unfair technological advantage

," she added.

"We are preparing to use a full range of tools to respond to them,"

she said, without giving details.

The United States no longer wants to go it alone

On the other hand, she confirmed that there would be a change in strategy since Washington no longer intends to go it alone in its offensive.

From the beginning of December, Joe Biden had himself indicated to the

New York Times

that he would remain firm vis-à-vis Beijing but had mentioned the idea of ​​forming a common front with the European Union in particular.

The United States and China signed a so-called “phase 1” trade agreement in January 2020.

Beijing had pledged to increase its purchases of American products and services by at least $ 200 billion over 2020 and 2021.

In contrast, the deal maintained 25% U.S. tariffs on a range of Chinese goods and industrial components worth $ 250 billion, and Chinese retaliatory measures on more than $ 100 billion in imports from China. United States.

Joe Biden has already warned that he intends to maintain these punitive tariffs for the time being so as not to jeopardize his options.

Digital appeasement

On another subject of friction, this time with Europeans, Janet Yellen seemed to want to play the card of appeasement and get closer to Europeans on the delicate issue of taxation of digital giants.

Taking the opposite view of her predecessor who had put an end to discussions within the framework of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), she stressed that this tax

"would make it possible to collect a fair share of companies, while maintaining the competitiveness of our companies and by reducing the incentives (...) to offshore activities that we certainly do not want to reward ”

.

Read also: Gafa tax: the United States suspends its customs sanctions against France

The administration of outgoing President Donald Trump, opposed to a taxation of its champions, had failed these negotiations.

It had threatened France with reprisals in the form of additional customs duties on emblematic French products such as champagne, in retaliation for the implementation of French taxation pending taxation within the framework of the OECD.

But, she had finally announced recently to suspend for the moment their application.

In addition, Janet Yellen stressed that she would ensure that the level of the US dollar is

"fixed by the markets"

.

"I will work to implement the President-elect's promise to oppose all attempts by foreign countries to artificially manipulate monetary values ​​to gain an unfair advantage in trade,"

she also said.

President Donald Trump has often decried the devaluation of certain foreign currencies including the Chinese currency to boost the Chinese giant's exports.