Exclusive: U.S. rethinks steps on China tariffs in wake of Taiwan response -sources - Reuters

President Joe Biden walks from Air Force One as he arrives at Joint Base Charleston in South Carolina, U.S., August 10, 2022.

WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - China's war games around Taiwan have led Biden administration officials to recalibrate their thinking on whether to scrap some tariffs or potentially impose others on Beijing, setting those options aside for now, according to sources familiar with the deliberations.

President Joe Biden's team has been wrestling for months with various ways to ease the costs of duties imposed on Chinese imports during predecessor Donald Trump's tenure, as it tries to tamp down skyrocketing inflation.

The tariffs make Chinese imports more expensive for U.S.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit last week to Taiwan triggered a recalculation by administration officials, who are eager not to do anything that could be viewed by China as an escalation while also seeking to avoid being seen as retreating in the face of the communist country's aggression.

China's military for days took part in ballistic missile launches and simulated attacks on the self-ruled island of Taiwan that China claims as its own.

"The president had not made a decision before events in the Taiwan Strait and has still not made a decision, period.

"The only person who will make the decision is the president – and he will do so based on what is in our interests.".

He wants to make sure that we don't do anything which would hurt American labor and American workers," she said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

The Trump administration had approved tariff exclusions for more than 2,200 import categories, including many critical industrial components and chemicals, but those expired as Biden took office in January 2021.

The tariffs were imposed in 2018 and 2019 by Trump on thousands of Chinese imports valued then at $370 billion to pressure China over its suspected theft of U.S.

tariffs on Chinese imports has been put on hold, said this was done in part because China failed to show any willingness to take reciprocal actions or meet its "Phase 1" trade deal commitments.

The trade deal, reached at the end of 2019 with the Trump administration, required China to increase its purchases of U.S.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday.