Rep. Estes to Newsmax: Help American Businesses

Rep. Ron Estes, R-Kan., last week grilled U.S. Trade Ambassador Katherine Tai during a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on what the Biden administration is doing to counter China’s growing influence over global trade.

Tai was light on specifics but said President Joe Biden is open to working with U.S. allies in the future to hold China accountable. 

Appearing Monday on Newsmax’s “National Report,” Estes said the Biden administration has the “wrong priorities regarding China and is forcing the ambassador not to do the things that we’ve all talked about in committee as being the right priorities.”

Estes added: “We saw during COVID how dependent the United States has become on China. We’re still struggling with supply chain and trying to focus on how do we get components of items. We need to make sure that we have good reciprocal trade agreements.”  

Estes said more products need to be made in the U.S. to help American businesses. China remains the major source of U.S. imports of furniture, bedding, lamps, toys, games, sports equipment, paint, and other items.

“We’re kind of missing the boat by not doing this moving forward,” Estes said. “In the meantime, what we’re seeing is China, with their Belt and Road initiative, is going throughout the world and building those relationships, and in a lot of cases, to those countries’ detriment. And the United States seems to be on the sideline, and we need to get more engaged in that.” 

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), sometimes referred to as the New Silk Road, is one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects ever conceived, according to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

Launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping, the vast collection of development and investment initiatives was originally devised to link East Asia and Europe through physical infrastructure. The project has expanded to Africa, Oceania, and Latin America, significantly broadening China’s economic and political influence.

The Initiative is a way for China to develop new trade linkages, cultivate export markets, boost Chinese incomes, and export China’s excess productive capacity. 

According to the CFR, “President Joe Biden has maintained his predecessors’ skeptical stance towards Beijing’s actions, but Washington has struggled to offer participating governments a more appealing economic vision.”