MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Joe Biden said he would pursue policies targeting China’s “abusive practices”

In an interview with NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman, Joe Biden said his top priority was getting a generous stimulus package through Congress

Joe Biden will not immediately cancel the Phase 1 trade agreement that President Donald Trump struck with China nor take steps to remove tariffs on Chinese exports, the New York Times on Wednesday quoted the U.S. president-elect as saying.

In an interview with Times columnist Thomas Friedman that gave clues to how the new administration will proceed on foreign policy, Biden said his top priority was getting a generous stimulus package through Congress, even before he takes power.

This week it was reported that Trump was eyeing more steps to box Biden into hard line positions on Beijing, backed by the anti-China sentiment in Congress that has often unnerved financial markets in the past four years.

“I’m not going to make any immediate moves, and the same applies to the tariffs. I’m not going to prejudice my options,” President-elect Biden told Friedman.

Biden said he would pursue policies targeting China’s “abusive practices,” such as “stealing intellectual property, dumping products, illegal subsidies to corporations” and forcing “tech transfers” from U.S. companies to Chinese counterparts.

But he also stressed the need to develop a bipartisan consensus at home and focus government efforts on investments in research and development, infrastructure and education that would allow companies to compete better with Chinese rivals.

“I want to make sure we’re going to fight like hell by investing in America first,” Biden said. “The best China strategy, I think, is one which gets every one of our — or at least what used to be our — allies on the same page.”

Under the Phase 1 agreement signed this year, China agreed to increase purchases of American products and services by at least US$ 200 billion over 2020 and 2021.