Rep. Larsen Says His Pragmatic Approach to China Is a Minority View in Congress
Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., told a virtual audience Feb. 9 hosted by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations that there are more members of Congress who want to punish China or decouple from its economy than there are those who see themselves as trying to salvage the relationship.
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Larsen, whose district includes Boeing's largest factory and 30,000 Boeing employees, noted that before the trade war, his district exported $7.1 billion worth of goods to China. Now it's $900 million. However, the decline in Boeing exports, which is responsible for that steep drop, is not because of retaliatory tariffs on Boeing's planes, but because of the grounding of the 737 Max aircraft models.
The moderator, NCUC President Steve Orlins, told Larsen he was surprised that Larsen's white paper on China did not call for lifting the tariffs on Chinese imports imposed during the trade war. Larsen said, "That doesn’t mean I don’t support the end of those," but said that what happens to the tariffs is not part of a grand strategy of how to compete with China.
Larsen did say the U.S. should rejoin the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership in the paper, but acknowledged during the interview that "realistically, we're not jumping into CPTPP soon." He said the best-case scenario for economic engagement in Asia is to arrive at a digital trade agreement, and perhaps some sector-specific agreements.
He pointed to the shift to tariff rate quotas instead of 25% tariffs on Japanese and European steel, and said, "the administration is starting to whittle away at some of the Trump-era tariffs."