US business groups call on President Biden to restart trade talks with China

Nearly three dozen of the United States' most influential business groups have asked President Joe Biden's administration to restart trade talks with China and cut tariffs on imports, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The tariffs on Chinese products paid by US importers were imposed to ensure that Beijing fulfills its obligations under its 2020 Phase One trade pact with the United States.

In a letter to US Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday, the business groups said that China had met "important benchmarks and commitments" in the agreement, the report added, including opening markets to US financial institutions and reducing some regulatory barriers to US agricultural exports to China.

"A worker-centered trade agenda should account for the costs that US and Chinese tariffs impose on Americans here and at home and remove tariffs that harm US interests," the report quoted the letter as saying.