U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies throughout a listening to earlier than the Monetary Providers and Basic Authorities Subcommittee of the Home Appropriations Committee at Rayburn Home Workplace Constructing on Capitol Hill on March 21, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Alex Wong | Getty Pictures
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday warned that China is treating the worldwide economic system as a dumping floor for its cheaper clear vitality merchandise, miserable market costs and squeezing inexperienced manufacturing within the U.S.
“I am concerned about global spillovers from the excess capacity that we are seeing in China,” Yellen mentioned throughout a speech at a Georgia photo voltaic firm referred to as Suniva. “China’s overcapacity distorts global prices and production patterns and hurts American firms and workers, as well as firms and workers around the world.”
China has a surplus of solar energy, electrical automobiles and lithium-ion batteries that it will probably ship out to different nations at cheaper costs. That makes it tough for the extra adolescent inexperienced manufacturing industries of the U.S. and elsewhere to compete.
Yellen mentioned she intends to place strain on Chinese language officers about these commerce practices throughout her upcoming go to to China.
“I plan to make it a key issue in discussions during my next trip there,” she mentioned. “I will press my Chinese counterparts to take necessary steps to address this issue.”
The secretary’s considerations come because the White Home tries to construct a burgeoning clear vitality trade domestically with investments from the 2022 Inflation Discount Act, together with different laws just like the CHIPS and Science Act.
Yellen has usually touted the positive aspects from these investments, together with at one other current speech the place she doubled down on the electric vehicle “boom” spurred by the IRA.
However these investments are enjoying catch-up with China’s authorities.
“The Biden Administration also recognizes that these investments are new,” Yellen mentioned Wednesday.
In the meantime, China has been pouring billions into clear vitality for years, outpacing the remainder of the world within the vitality transition.
Yellen added that the extra China’s clear vitality glut interferes with international market costs, the more severe off provide chains for these vitality sectors might be.
“President Biden is committed to doing what we can to protect our industries from unfair competition,” Yellen mentioned.
The Chinese language Embassy in Washington didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Yellen’s feedback spotlight ongoing U.S.-China commerce stress at the same time as the 2 nations attempt to regular relations.
President Joe Biden met with Chinese language President Xi Jinping in November as an olive-branch effort to interrupt the ice after years of stress, marked partially by a tariff warfare launched by former President Donald Trump.
Trump has floated reinstating important tariff ranges on Chinese language merchandise if he wins a second presidential time period.
Within the time because the Biden-Xi assembly, strengthening U.S.-China relations has confirmed a precarious effort as a result of ongoing cybersecurity and commerce considerations.
In February, Biden launched an investigation into Chinese language sensible vehicles, which he mentioned pose a nationwide safety danger as a result of they hook up with U.S. infrastructure once they drive on American roads.
“China is determined to dominate the future of the auto market, including by using unfair practices,” Biden mentioned in a February statement. “China’s policies could flood our market with its vehicles, posing risks to our national security. I’m not going to let that happen on my watch.”
