U.S., allies cannot allow China to dominate raw materials, technologies - Yellen

LG

19/07/2022 24:48

(Repeats item first carried late Monday)
    By Andrea Shalal
    SEOUL, July 18 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet
Yellen will call on Tuesday for deeper trade ties among allies
to fortify their supply chains, combat inflation and thwart
China's "unfair trade practices" and efforts to dominate key raw
materials and technologies markets.
    Yellen will make the comments in a major policy speech in
Seoul after touring the facilities of South Korean tech
heavyweight LG Corp  003550.KS  during the final leg of her
11-day visit to the Indo-Pacific region.
    "We cannot allow countries like China to use their market
position in key raw materials, technologies or products to
disrupt our economy and exercise unwanted geopolitical
leverage," Yellen will say, according to excerpts released by
the Treasury Department.
    Instead, Yellen will say, the United States and allies like
South Korea should focus on "friend-shoring", or diversifying
their supply chains to rely more on trusted trading partners,
strengthening economic resilience and lowering risks.
    According to the excerpts of her comments, Yellen will say
doing so would sustain the dynamism and productivity growth that
comes with economic integration, while helping to insulate
citizens in the United States and South Korea from price
increases caused by geopolitical risks.
    Western powers have raced to end their over-dependence on
China as a key supplier since the start of the COVID-19
pandemic, which exposed the fragility of global supply chains
and laid bare gaps in domestic capacities in key sectors.
    Yellen will say the pandemic and Russia's war in Ukraine -
actions Moscow calls "a special military operation" - made clear
the necessity of addressing supply chain vulnerabilities and
working to reduce logjams and shortages that have driven prices
higher around the world.
    Friend-shoring offered the United States and its allies a
way to preserve the best features of the rules-based global
order, while addressing unfair Chinese trade practices and
ensuring access to vital inputs and products - from medicine to
semiconductors and electric vehicle batteries, she will say.
    In her comments Yellen was set to highlight a series of
investments that LG has recently made to expand the
manufacturing of electric vehicle batteries in the United
States.
    She will say the key to the new approach on trade required
countries to properly account for and factor in the costs of
overly concentrated supply chains , geopolitical concerns and
value - rather than "overly focusing on costs".        

 (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
 ((andrea.shalal@tr.com; +1 202-815-7432;))