China

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, today, President Biden announced he is taking new steps to protect U.S. workers and put the Chinese Communist Party on notice with a new round of tariffs on goods vital for America's economic future.

I commend President Biden for standing up for American workers and making it clear to the CCP that they will face the consequences for their trade abuses. Fighting the CCP's unfair trade practices is something I have cared about for a very long time. It was one of the very first issues I focused on when I first visited Upstate New York as a Senator and saw for myself jobs leaving the shores. The CCP has shown that they will stop at nothing to steal our intellectual property and undermine our economy.

When I met with President Xi during my codel last fall, I pointedly confronted him about the Chinese Government's history of trade abuses and said we need to create a more even-leveled playing field.

Today's tariffs are thus a good step towards reversing America's trade imbalance and protect U.S. production of everything from batteries to solar cells to semiconductors to steel and aluminum.

I am particularly pleased that President Biden's tariffs will boost American EVs and clean energy manufacturing. With all the investments we Democrats made in the Inflation Reduction Act to boost EV manufacturing--something I care a lot about and worked hard for--it would be terrible for America's roads to become saturated with EVs made in China, and these tariffs will help prevent that. We have taken major steps to reverse the ossification of U.S. manufacturing with the infrastructure law, the IRA, and Chips and Science, but the President's tariffs are also a critical part of the solution.

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