Yellen says Trump's tariff plan would hike costs for US consumers

By David Lawder

BOSTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday said Republican former President Donald Trump's plan to raise tariffs 10% across the board would raise costs for U.S. consumers, although the United States needs some tariffs and is reviewing those linked to China.

"It would certainly raise the cost of a wide variety of goods that American businesses and consumers rely on. In some cases, I think tariffs are appropriate," Yellen told reporters during a visit to Roxbury Community college in Boston when asked about Trump’s proposal.

Trump, who is again seeking the Republican nomination for president in the 2024 election, has signaled that he would double down on stronger tariffs if elected, calling for a universal 10% tariff on all imports into the U.S. and revoking China's most-favored-nation trading status. That status, granted in 2001, allows China to receive the lowest World Trade Organization tariffs on many goods that are excluded from punitive tariffs.

Yellen said Trump had enacted tariffs on Chinese goods as a result of what he had said were Beijing's "unfair trade policies" and their impact on the United States. Trump imposed tariffs on more than $300 billion worth of Chinese imports during a three-year trade war while he was president.

Yellen said the Biden administration is "undergoing a review of the structure of those tariffs, and I think that they might be leveled in a more strategic manner than they were originally put in place."

Many of the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration were placed on consumer goods including toys and T-shirts as the U.S.-China trade war escalated.

Yellen did not say how the China tariffs might be shifted. But, she said, "It's important for the United States to be able to ensure that we have diversified supply chains, that we're creating good jobs in industries of the future, like clean energy and semiconductors."

According to some reports, the Biden administration is considering increasing tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles and other clean-energy goods.

Yellen was visiting Boston to sell the benefits of clean-energy tax credits under the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act in lowering bills for U.S. households.

(Reporting by David Lawder in Boston; writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Leslie Adler)