How and why Biden uses steel to isolate China
The Biden administration's National Security Strategy talks about the steel agreement with the European Union: more than a trade agreement, in fact, it was a tool to hit China. Here because
Last week, Joe Biden's administration published its National Security Strategy , a forty-eight-page document that sets out the national security priorities of the United States. Those identified by the current president are three: overcoming China in economic-political competition, containing Russia and restoring American democracy.
THE US-EU AGREEMENT ON ALUMINUM AND STEEL
An apparently unusual reference appears in the text: it speaks of the trade agreement on steel and aluminum reached in November 2021 by the United States and the European Union. Through that arrangement, Biden explains, the United States uses its "economic weight to drive decarbonization" around the world.
"Our steel agreement with the EU," it reads, "the first ever steel and aluminum agreement that addresses both carbon intensity and global overcapacity, is a model for future trade mechanisms. focused on the climate ".
THE CONTEXT
The agreement allowed Washington and Brussels to freeze the trade in tariffs initiated in 2018 by former US President Donald Trump, who imposed tariffs on imports of steel (25 per cent) and aluminum (10 per cent) from the European Union, justifying them with the defense of American national security. Europe responded by applying counter-tariffs to a variety of US goods typical – and politically sensitive, for the various US states in which they were produced – such as bourbon or Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
THE OBJECTIVE: HIT CHINA
The agreement, however, not only served to suspend the trade war between the two blocs and to return to the commercial status quo: it also allowed for the establishment of an international coordination to counter the "dirty", that is, polluting, production of steel.
In practice, the US-EU pact aims to combat China, which is by far the largest producer of steel in the world – worth 56 percent of total output – as well as the country responsible for the largest amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Beijing is accused by Washington and Brussels of saturating the markets with excessive quantities of steel which, given their low cost, damages European and US steel companies.
CLIMATIC ACTION AS AN ECONOMIC WEAPON
A year ago Biden pointed out that the agreement with Europe was meant to "restrict access to our markets for dirty steel from countries like China". Washington, therefore, uses environmental motivation as a weapon to hit Beijing, narrowing the outlet markets for its goods and trying to slow down its economic rise, in concert with Brussels.
– Read also: Chip, all the effects of the new US blockade on China
THE EU DUTY ON CARBON
Indeed, Europeans are interested not only in reducing emissions but also in protecting their businesses from “climate-based unfair” competition. It is no coincidence that in the Fit for 55 plan, the Commission's strategy for decarbonization, a " carbon duty " (CBAM) has been included to be applied to products from non-European countries that do not have strict policies against air pollution .
THE REPLY OF CHINA
The former Chinese ambassador to the European Union, Zhang Ming, had criticized the steel agreement between Washington and Brussels, arguing that it would help "aggravate the tension" in industrial supplies and worsen the inflation crisis. According to him, the commercial trade policies of the European Commission are "closed in on themselves", "unilateral" and aimed at creating "new trade barriers".
The Biden administration 's National Security Strategy identifies China as the priority of US foreign policy, describing it as “the only country with both the intention of reshaping the international order and, increasingly, economic power, diplomatic, military and technological to pursue this goal ".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/stati-uniti-sicurezza-nazionale-acciaio/ on Tue, 18 Oct 2022 06:08:17 +0000.