By Alexandra Sharp
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at new U.S. tariffs on Chinese products, Georgia passing its foreign agents law, and extremism allegations in Germany’s popular far-right party.
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Trade Frictions
Surrounded by union members, U.S. President Joe Biden signs documents that increase tariffs on China at the White House in Washington on May 14.Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
U.S. President Joe Biden unveiled a new slew of U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports on Tuesday. The White House cited “unacceptable risks” posed by Beijing flooding the global market with cheap products. Around $18 billion of imported goods will be affected, including electric vehicles, semiconductors, steel and aluminum, critical minerals, medical products, and solar panels. Biden also said he would maintain tariffs, originally established under former U.S. President Donald Trump, on more than $300 billion of Chinese goods.
Among some of the key changes, the White House plans to quadruple electric vehicle duties to more than 100 percent, double taxes on solar cells and semiconductors, and place a 50 percent tariff rate on hospital syringes and needles. U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said these tariffs were justified to combat Chinese efforts to steal U.S. intellectual property. The United States imported $427 billion in goods from China and exported $148 billion to Beijing last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“China is determined to dominate these industries. I’m determined to ensure America leads the world in them,” Biden posted on X on Tuesday.
Beijing immediately vowed retaliation. “This action will seriously impact the atmosphere of bilateral cooperation,” the Chinese Commerce Ministry said. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin urged the White House to cancel the measures, arguing that they go against consensus reached during Biden’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco last November. “We urge the U.S. to stop repairing and digging up the road at the same time, so to speak, and create enabling conditions for China-U.S. climate cooperation and global green transition,” Wang said.
Biden’s announcement signals the latest escalation in a trade war that began under Trump and has since become a key campaign issue ahead of the November U.S. presidential election. Trump routinely raised tariffs on Chinese goods during his tenure. He has since proposed a 10 percent tax on all imports from all countries as well as a tax of at least 60 percent on all Chinese goods, including a 200 percent tax on Chinese vehicles manufactured in Mexico.
Biden has criticized Trump’s “across-the-board tariffs” while also toughening his own economic posturing on China in a bid to woo working-class voters in key swing states, including areas at the center of the United States’ auto industry. “We know China’s unfair practices have harmed communities in Michigan and Pennsylvania and around the country that are now having the opportunity to come back due to President Biden’s investment agenda,” said Lael Brainard, the director of the White House National Economic Council.
Today’s Most Read
What We’re Following
Foreign agents law. In an 84-30 vote, Georgian parliamentarians on Tuesday passed a controversial foreign agents law that requires all nongovernmental organizations and media outlets that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as “bearing the interests of a foreign power.” The pro-Kremlin Georgian Dream party introduced the Russian-modeled law ahead of parliamentary elections in October.
The proposed policy sparked weeks of violent mass protests in Tbilisi as well as clashes on the parliament floor. On Tuesday, riot police descended on demonstrators outside of the nation’s parliament building. Almost all of the detained people have reportedly said they were subjected to degrading treatment from security forces.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, who is an independent, has vowed to veto the legislation, but Georgian Dream’s majority in government means her motion will likely be overturned. The European Union and United States have warned that the law will cause democratic backsliding in Georgia as Tbilisi seeks EU membership.
Russian assets. During a trip to Kyiv on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington plans to seize Russian assets in the United States and use them to help fund Ukraine’s reconstruction. What Russian President Vladimir “Putin destroyed, Russia should—must—pay to rebuild. It’s what international law demands, and it’s what the Ukrainian people deserve,” Blinken said. He met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other senior officials to reiterate the United States’ support for Kyiv, saying promised U.S. military aid was en route and will “make a real difference.”
This was the first trip to Ukraine by a U.S. senior official since Washington passed a $95 billion emergency spending package in April that included $61 billion in military aid for Ukraine. For months, the bill was stalled in Congress as U.S. Republicans sought to attach GOP amendments addressing border security.
Party extremism. A German court ruled on Monday that the nation’s domestic intelligence agency was correct in designating the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in 2021 as a suspected extremist organization. The party’s goals are “aimed against the human dignity of certain groups of people and the principle of democracy,” the court said, citing xenophobic statements made by some of its top leaders.
The designation allows state intelligence officers to wiretap party members to monitor the group’s activities. The AfD has risen in recent years to become one of the most popular political parties in Germany, and it is currently leading in local polls for regional elections in the fall.
On Tuesday, a German court found local AfD leader Björn Höcke guilty for intentionally using a banned slogan from the Nazi Party’s paramilitary wing, the Storm Troopers, in a campaign rally. Höcke, a former history teacher, denied knowing the origin of the slogan, which is “Everything for Germany.” He was fined $14,060, which will go to a grassroots anti-extremism campaign. He is the leading candidate for state elections in Thuringia, slated for later this year.
Odds and Ends
Swiss singer Nemo garnered widespread awe for their 2024 Eurovision performance, in which they sang an opera-inspired EDM song titled “The Code” while balancing on a metal disc. But that appears to be where their balancing skills end. After winning the song contest, Nemo promptly broke their award and cut their thumb. “I lift it, and when I put it down, it just shattered,” they said.
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