US Won’t Escalate Tariffs on China, Says Trade Official

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U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Feb. 25 that the United States has been in touch with China regarding tariffs in the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling that struck down the use of tariffs under emergency powers, and the plan is to keep the existing agreements in place.

“I think over the past year we’ve come to an agreement with China; they understand we’re going to have some level of tariff,” he said on Fox Business.

The Chinese regime sharply increased tariffs when President Donald Trump unveiled global tariffs to address the national trade deficit last year while most countries sought to negotiate, leading to around 145 percent duties both ways.

By October, the United States and China had “de-escalated all of that” after a bilateral meeting, Greer said, with tariffs on certain products coming from China remaining between 30 and 50 percent.

“We don’t intend to escalate beyond that,” he said. “We intend to really stick to the deal that we had before.”

Trump had said during his Tuesday night State of the Union address that most countries have expressed a desire to keep the deals they already have with the United States, hoping to avoid higher tariffs imposed under different mechanisms.

Greer said he has been in “constant contact” with trade partners to explain the new mechanisms that will be used to maintain the existing trade deals.

Section 122 of the Trade Act is what the United States is currently using to impose sweeping 10–15 percent tariffs. The statute empowers the president to impose surcharges or other import restrictions to address “international payment problems.”

Greer said there is also Section 301—under which the United States can impose trade penalties including tariffs and fees if an investigation determines it appropriate—and Section 232, which authorizes tariffs or import quotas on a national security basis if a Commerce Department investigation deems it necessary.

Greer said those investigations target issues that the United States has determined in the past, such as forced labor in supply chains and industrial excess capacity—both issues the Chinese regime has been accused of perpetrating.

He said he and trade negotiators such as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have discussed these points with the Chinese regime, which does not have a market economy like the United States but instead subsidizes Chinese industries to advance its interests.

“I don’t think they’re going to resolve that problem fully and that’s part of why we need to have tariffs on China, and Vietnam, and other countries that have this problem,” he said.

He also listed unfair trade practices such as discrimination against U.S. tech companies, something U.S. officials and lawmakers have accused the EU of using.

Investigations will be launched in the next few days with public hearings to follow, Greer added, and they may result in raising tariffs on trade partners.

“We'll calculate the amount of harm to the American people based on these unfair trading practices, and if these things aren’t resolved by our partners, we can impose a tariff,” he said.

“It’s a very detailed, public process that allows [the president] to put into place very durable tariffs under existing law,” he added.

Greer said that while it’s possible to impose higher tariffs with these mechanisms, the United States would only do so “if those countries reneged on their deals or trade practices.”

“These are real agreements and they’re substantive, and countries have made specific commitments to change some of their unfair trading practices, but we have to make sure they do it,” he said.

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