Biden’s administration shocks the UAE
The US president, Joe Biden, shocked the UAE by cancelling a new decision taken by former President Donald Trump in favour of Abu Dhabi.
The White House said Biden intends to maintain customs duties on aluminium imports from the UAE, retreating from a step taken by former President Donald Trump to end the fees on the last day of his presidency.
Trump said on January 20 that he would exempt the UAE from 10 per cent customs duties imposed on most aluminium imports in 2018, adding that the two countries had reached a quota agreement that would limit aluminium imports.
The waiver was due to take effect on Wednesday.
Shortly after declaring the UAE a “major security partner” and signing an agreement to sell 50 F-35 fighter jets, Trump granted the waiver.
And last week, the Biden administration said it would temporarily suspend this and other agreements for review.
On Monday night, the White House decision said the aluminium tariffs would be more effective in protecting domestic producers from the “untested quota” announced by Trump.
Biden said, “In my view, the available evidence indicates that imports from the UAE are still replacing domestic production and thus threatening to harm our national security.”
“I think it is necessary and appropriate in light of our national security interests that we keep at this time the customs duties applied to aluminium imports from the United Arab Emirates,” he added.
A White House spokeswoman said reversing Trump’s decision should not be seen as a “detriment of the close diplomatic relations between the United States and the UAE,” but rather part of a broader review of the previous administration’s trade policies, including tariffs.
She added, “President Biden’s priority is to re-establish a smart process for making foreign and trade policy based on deliberative economic analysis and a strategy that guarantees equal opportunities for the American worker to compete internationally.”
Biden said Trump imposed tariffs for the first time in 2018 to revive stalled aluminium facilities, open smelters and closed factories, and increase domestic production by reducing the United States’ dependence on foreign producers, adding that this need remains.
He stated that the US Commerce Department could have granted waivers to Emirati producers if it found that local producers were not harmed. Instead, they rejected 32 of the 33 exemption requests from Emirati producers before Trump’s decision.
The White House said that the US data also showed a 25% decline in aluminium imports from the UAE after the duties, compared to a 22% increase in domestic aluminium production during 2019, before the Coronavirus pandemic.
According to data from the US Trade Representative’s office, total aluminium imports from the UAE amounted to $1.3 billion in 2019.
