The Changing Landscape of Free Trade under Joe Biden's Administration
The Guardian view on free trade: an idea whose time has gone | Editorial
Joe Biden and Donald Trump agree on tariffs against China. The world has lost its biggest cheerleader for globalization.
The biggest shift in American politics has nothing to do with Stormy Daniels or Michael Cohen, Fox News or golf courses. Indeed, its author is not Donald J Trump. Yet the implications stretch far beyond this year’s presidential elections, and affect countries across the world. The era of free trade is dying, and the man bringing down the guillotine represents the party that in the past three decades has been evangelically pro-globalization: the Democrats.
- Last week, Joe Biden imposed tariffs on a range of Chinese-made goods. Electric cars produced in China will now be hit with import tax of 100%, chips and solar cells 50% and lithium-ion batteries 25%.
- These and other tariffs on goods worth an estimated $18bn a year amount to a rounding error in the giant US economy.
- In an election year, Mr. Biden, who hails from Scranton, Pennsylvania, is fretting about support not only in his home state but across the country’s industrial heartland, gutted by decades of free trade.
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This article was prepared using information from open sources in accordance with the principles of Ethical Policy. The editorial team is not responsible for absolute accuracy, as it relies on data from the sources referenced.