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Trade policy expert discusses Biden’s approach to US-China trade

A trade policy expert says it’s still not clear yet how the Biden administration will approach trade with China.

Chad Brown is the Reginald Jones Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

“They have said they have the same concerns with China,” he says. “Reading the tea leaves on their approach it sounds like they may take a different strategic approach— not a trade war necessarily.”

The administration has said it will work closely with allies to hold China accountable for intellectual property protections and forced technology transfers.

“The concerns on the trade side that the U.S. has with China are concerns shared by Europeans, Japan, and other market-oriented countries around the world and the United States should be working with them collectively to address the problem,” he says.

Brown, speaking during the recent USDA Ag Outlook Forum, said the previous administration’s “go-it-alone” approach meant the U.S. carried the cost of the trade war instead of sharing it with allies.