U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Wednesday she would not rule out taking additional steps to protect U.S. clean energy industries from Chinese competition, as she traveled to China for nearly a week of high-level talks aimed at further stabilizing financial and economic ties between the world’s two largest economies.
During a refueling stop in Alaska, Yellen told reporters the Biden administration wants to support the growth of the U.S. solar panel, electric vehicle and battery industries.
"We're providing tax subsidies to some of these sectors, and I wouldn't want to rule out other possible ways in which we would protect them," Yellen said, when asked whether she would raise the prospect of new trade barriers with her Chinese counterparts.
She did not specify whether new U.S. steps could include tariffs.
Yellen said ahead of her trip that China’s subsidizing clean energy and industrial overcapacity “hurts American firms and workers, as well as firms and workers around the world.”
The trip is Yellen’s second to China and comes after U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke this week in a phone call for the first time since meeting in November. It also comes as scrutiny of Beijing intensifies ahead of the U.S. presidential elections and Washington tightens curbs on the sale of high-tech goods to China.
Following the 105-minute phone call, Xi warned Biden that the U.S. was "creating risks" by suppressing China’s trade and technology development, according to state-run Xinhua news agency.
