US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Friday that it is appropriate to consider taking steps to reduce US tariffs on Chinese goods that could reduce US inflation, which hit a 40-year high this year. Reuters, citing a trend report.
“We want to do everything we can to reduce inflation,” Yellen told Bloomberg TV, citing steps by President Joe Biden to release oil from strategic petroleum reserves and address supply chain disruptions. Happened.
The tariff cut was also “worth considering”, she said. “There will be some desirable effects. This is something we are seeing,” she said.
Yellen’s remarks came a day after Dalip Singh, a top White House adviser, suggested the United States could reduce tariffs imposed on non-strategic Chinese goods such as bicycles or apparel to protect against inflation. to help deal with it. read more
Singh, who serves as Biden’s deputy national security adviser, said the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration may have given it some negotiating advantage, but they served no strategic purpose.
He said reducing those tariffs and focusing on more strategic areas, including critical technologies, could provide a good opportunity.
Inflation is a serious concern for Biden, whose approval rating is falling as the cost of energy, food and other staples rise, and his Democrats are in dire danger of losing their majority in Congress in the midterm elections in November.
Yellen told CNBC in a separate interview that inflation could peak in the United States, but cautioned that prices could rise “for a while”.
The number 2 official at the International Monetary Fund, Gita Gopinath, said at an event that the risk of fragmentation in the global economy was a major topic during the meetings of IMF and World Bank members this week.
He said many countries were seriously questioning his approach to global trade, how to strengthen their supply chains and protect themselves from hostile trading partners.
But policies that prompted countries to “look more inward” could exacerbate inflationary pressures, he said, urging countries to work together to improve resilience in a “shock-ridden world”. .
“You don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater,” she said.
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