Despite vociferous disagreement on most other issues, politicians in both major parties appear poised to continue the United States’ campaign to redirect manufacturing out of China – a sweeping change that even in its early stages has already done much to reshape the global economy.
Robert Lighthizer, the US Trade Representative during the Donald Trump administration, has taken credit for the extensive regime of tariffs imposed during his tenure which permanently altered the bilateral trade relationship.
In No Trade Is Free, published last year as an overview of his time as a policymaker, the China hawk described the action he initiated under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 – import taxes and other restrictions the subsequent Joe Biden administration has maintained and built upon – as a “historic success”.
