Sen. Casey Said He Expressed His Concerns on Section 301 Review Decision

A senator who is pushing against reductions in the scope of the Section 301 tariff action against China (see 2311210048) said that while he "had some good conversations with the administration about it," he doesn't know when the administration will announce the results of its review.

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said during a brief interview at the Capitol, "I don't want to speak for them about where they will land, but they know my concerns." He added: "I just want to make sure that whatever the administration does on 301 [tariffs], they take into consideration workers in Pennsylvania, and the adverse impact that any change in 301s would yield against the interest of workers and industry."

Casey declined to say whether officials told him they were planning to reduce tariff rates for some categories, or whether they intended to remove the punitive tariffs on some Chinese goods.

The review began in May 2022, and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai told senators in May 2023 that it would be completed in the fall of 2023 (see 2307190069).

Eleven months ago, Bill Reinsch, a trade expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said: "There is no decision that Biden can make on tariffs that will be politically popular. Any decision he makes will be too little for business, too much for labor and too much for Republicans," he said, since Republicans are trying to paint Biden as soft on China. "In that situation, what you usually do is nothing. That’s pretty much what they do."