Biden to keep Trump-era China tariffs for now
Workers wearing face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus push a cart loaded with shoes made by Nike past a security post at a shopping mall in Beijing, Jan. 14, 2021. China’s exports rose in 2020 despite pressure from the coronavirus pandemic and a tariff war with Washington, boosting its politically volatile trade surplus to $535 billion, one of the highest ever reported.
In a call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, President Joe Biden said he would keep tariffs on China in place since the Trump administration for the time being. In the UK, with new Brexit rules, British musicians say the industry is in jeopardy. Also, Friday is Chinese New Year, a time for celebration when streets and restaurants overflow with food and festivities. But the pandemic has hit some Chinese communities in the US especially hard as tourism has fallen off the map. And, South Africa is rolling out vaccines for the coronavirus this month. It’s tricky, given the relative ineffectiveness of some vaccines against a new variant that emerged there.