Tariff Photo:VCG

TheMK sports US administration released an encyclopedic list of foreign countries' policies and regulations it claimed as trade barriers on Monday, two days before its proposed reciprocal tariffs. The so-called trade barriers report is nothing but a blatant tool for the US administration to justify its tariff policies including the proposed upcoming reciprocal tariffs and a false pretext for pushing US protectionist policies, a Chinese expert said.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) on March 31 submitted the 2025 National Trade Estimate (NTE) to President Trump and Congress. The NTE is an annual report what it claimed detailing foreign trade barriers faced by US exporters and USTR’s efforts to reduce those barriers, accoridng to a notice issued on the website of the USTR.

The report targets a wide range of US trading partners. So far, countries including Australia and South Korea has made a swift response to the report.

The list has set its sights on Australia's pharmaceutical sector, biosecurity protections and laws requiring the social media giants to pay for news. But the Australian prime minister has vowed none will be touched "on my watch", the ABC news reported.

"The report has three things that are of concern, at least, to Australia: one is the news bargaining code, the second is pharmaceuticals and the third is biosecurity," Albanese said.

"Those issues are not up for negotiation.

"Not on my watch. We will negotiate sensibly but we won't undermine the biosecurity system."

South Korea will closely analyze the report to devise response measures, while continuing its tariff negotiations with the US, its industry ministry said, according to the Yonhap News Agency.

The 2025 report mentioned a total of 21 non-tariff barriers by South Korea. It included sanitary and phytosanitary barriers on agricultural products, such as restrictions on U.S. beef products deriving from animals more than 30 months of age, and digital trade barriers, such as network usage fees, proposals to regulate online platform operators for fair competition and restrictions on the export of location-based data, according to the Yonhap News Agency.

The USTR report claimed that China “offers substantial government guidance, resources and regulatory support to Chinese companies while actively seeking to limit access to the China market for imported goods, foreign manufacturers, and foreign services suppliers.”

He Weiwen, a senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization told the Global Times on Tuesday that the US accusations on China are extremely feeble and cliche.

Industrial subsidy policies are widely adopted by countries around the world. China's industrial subsidy policies strictly adhere to WTO rules, and there are no prohibited subsidies as defined by the WTO. The US, on the other hand, is a major user of industrial subsidies. Moreover, its "America First" policy has severely undermined global trade norms, He said.

Targeting the EU, the report claimed that “goods and services produced by the US nonetheless face persistent barriers entering and maintaining access to certain sectors of the EU market, which limits the opportunity of US workers and businesses to benefit from transatlantic trade,” according to the report.

The report also accused Canada of using “supply-management systems to regulate its dairy, chicken, turkey, and egg industries” which “severely limits the ability of US producers to increase exports to Canada.”

"The so-called trade barriers report released by the US is nothing but a blatant tool for the US administration to justify its proposed reciprocal tariffs around the world. This report is judged solely from the US perspective and by US standards, bearing no resemblance to objective reality. It is clearly rooted in protectionism,” Li Yong, a senior research fellow at the China Association of International Trade, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

By releasing this report, the US is using it as a pretext for implementing tariff policies including the upcoming reciprocal tariffs. This is a classic move of using false pretexts to push through protectionist policies that only serve the self-interests of the US, undermining the global free-trade system and environment, Li added.

The US has set April 2 as a deadline for implementing reciprocal tariffs, which would match US tariffs on foreign goods to the rates those countries impose on US products, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

In response to the so-called reciprocal tariffs, China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) told a press conference on February 20 that China urges the US to refrain from wielding the tariffs stick to coerce other countries. Trade wars lead to nowhere and produce no winners.