The 46th President of the United States, Joe Biden, has moved into the White House facing tsunami of problems created by the outgoing administration. The new administration has to face an unprecedented challenge not seen by any other administration in the history of the United States. During the initial working hours of the day, President Biden signed a total of seventeen executive orders, including the foremost and of paramount importance ofthe COVID-19, immigration, the Paris agreement, and the WHO. On the subject of contacting the world leaders, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is on the top of the list, followed by calls to other friends and allies to reassure them returning to multilateralism, consultative approach, respect, integrity, credibility, honoring the treaties & agreements, rejoining the international organizations, and the treaties.
President Biden has to address domestic as well as the foreign policy challenges, both at the same time.He has to show his charisma and leadership to uplifting nation’s morale, legislations for social reforms, directives for economic revival, and building confidence with the world leaders for resuming the global leadership, once again!At both fronts, his administration has to work at the speed of light forcontrolling the coronavirus, reviving the economy and to show US support and commitment to its friends & allies all around the world.
Under Biden’s administration, US-China relations will be thoroughly reviewed, including the trade and tariffs issues. It is highly likely and has also been stated by the President Elect Biden prior to the inauguration that for the time being, the current tariffs will remain in place until they are reviewed thoroughly by the newly assembled and highly experienced team under the new trade policy. In general, the current administration’s view is non-combative, thus quite different than the Trump administration approach. The new administration and its technocrat teamare fully on board for resolving the bilateral issues throughnegotiations and not byunilateral impositions as was done previously.
Several business leaders have already expressed their opinions against the tariffs. Trade experts from the United States and China, both have voiced the new administration for the immediate need for establishing channels to rebuilding the bilateral relations based on mutual trust, respect and without intimidations. This approach will help to stop further deterioration of the relations between the world’s two largest economies and will also help each other to boost their own economies through job creations that have been lost due to the unilateral tariff’s sanctions imposed by the previous administration.
American business group has also called for Biden administration to rebuild it ties with China and pointed out that Trump’s trade war had hurt the US economy. According to the US-China Business Council since the beginning of the trade dispute three years ago about 245,000 American jobs have been lost. The group, that represents major American manufacturing businesses based in China, has also alarmed the administration that further trade war escalation between the two biggest economies could result United States GDP to decline by US$1.6 trillion over the next five years. This decline is based on a recent study carried out by the famous research firm, Oxford Economics. According to the report, if the current trend (tariffs) will continue, it could result disappearance of 732,000 jobs in 2022 followed by another 320,000 jobs loss in 2025!
Craig Allen, president of the US-China Business Council, has stated in a recent report that “China has brought – and continues to bring- to the US economy, American global competitiveness, and job creation.” He has suggested to Biden’s China trade negotiations team to gradually rollback the current tariffs to about 12 percent from current 19 percent level. This approach will help to generate an additional US$160 billion in GDP and creation of additional 145,000 jobs by 2025.
Besides the bilateral trade, there are many areas where world’s two largest economies can cooperate that will be not only good for their own nations but also for the global citizens. To begin with, cooperation in COVID-19 pandemic global recovery, including expedited vaccine supply assistanceto the poor countries (Africa &Latin/South America) to inoculate their citizens. Climate control initiatives and drives for reducing the carbon footprint by developing& assisting other nations in the renewable (non-fossil fuel) energy technologies to help reach carbon neutral targets, sooner. To join hands in space exploration programs for Mars and other planets by using the SPACE STATION model for cooperation &cost sharingto benefit the entire human race.Assisting third world countries in controlling corruption and money launderingby the bad actors and recovering of the stolen money and returning it back to the countries where it belongs to. Human and drug trafficking cartels apprehension and prosecution under the national laws or through the international courts (Hague).
In a congratulatory message to Biden, Chinese ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai has stated similar sentiments. According to his statement, Beijing is looking forward to working with the new administration to develop “sound and steady” bilateral ties and jointly addressing the global challenges.