The US Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellenexpressed this Tuesday that the United States and Europe had to respond to the China’s industrial policies in a “strategic and united way” to maintain the factory viability on both sides of the Atlantic. Specifically, he has urged the Old Continent to join the repression of Chinese exports that the Biden administration launched just a week ago with a new battery of tariffs.
He said this in a speech he gave in Germany, where he received the honorary title of the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, which he has taken the opportunity to warn that an excess of cheap Chinese products could threaten the survival of factories around the world.
According to Yellen, the US and its Western allies must react jointly to the China’s growing manufacturing power or else they will put their own industries at risk.
“China’s industrial policy may seem remote as we sit here in this room, but if we do not respond strategically and unitedly, “The viability of companies both in our countries and around the world could be at risk”the Treasury Secretary has insisted.
The US approved an increase in tariffs on China
Yellen’s words come just a week after Joe Biden approved an increase in tariffs on imports of products from China worth $18 billion. As explained by the White House, the new measures will affect electric cars, semiconductors, solar panels, lithium batteries, port cranes and medical products coming from the Asian giant.
That further raised the tension between both economies, to the point that China denounced US protectionism and warned that it will defend its interests. The new war that Washington and Beijing seem to have started could spill over into Europe, which for the moment prefers to remain in the middle.
In fact, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has already said that will not join the United States in raising tariffs, but Brussels will take a different approach. “We want competition, we want to trade together, but we want it to be fair and respect the rules,” Von der Leyen also noted in statements to the ‘Financial Times’ this Tuesday before Yellen’s speech.
Another request from the US to the European Union
Finally, Yellen has called for greater cooperation between the US and the EU on critical minerals, arguing that both regions’ supply chains are “over-concentrated in China.” He has also requested collaboration for the evolution of the multilateral development banks, such as the World Bank, artificial intelligence and semiconductors.
Source: Ambito
