The Biden administration is raising tariffs on $18 billion worth of imports from China. It includes raising the tariffs on electric vehicles from 25% to 100% and on semiconductors from 25% to 50%.

In an exclusive interview with Yahoo Finance, President Biden says, "China is fundamentally underwriting their entire industries" and will "pay whatever it takes" to saturate a market with their own goods. Biden argues that the new tariffs are aimed at saving American jobs. When it comes to EVs, for example, Biden tells Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi that China is trying to "flood the market with EVs that are incredibly cheap. They're not making any money on them [and] deliberately doing it to put other people out of business." Ultimately, he says, the new tariffs are about "being fair."

Biden expects China to talk about retaliation, but he thinks the actual response will be minimal. "They'll probably try to figure out how they can raise tariffs, maybe on products that are unrelated."

One thing Biden has been struggling with is the fact that Americans are still frustrated with stubbornly high inflation, which has risen nearly 20% since he took office. Biden acknowledges that "people are just uncertain" about the economy right now, but he plans to "be steady, stay the course," adding it's "going to take a little more time."

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Video Transcript

Mr President, thank you so much for joining Yao Finance.

It's, it's an honor to be uh inside the White House.

So you and your administration have taken strong action against China 100% tariffs on, on China EVs 50% tariffs on semiconductors from China.

Now, a lot of economists would say this could unleash inflation.

How do you convince the American public that this will cause inflation and why so targeted with the tariffs?

Look, China is fundamentally underwriting their entire industries.

They're, they're just over, they float a market, they pay whatever it takes to be flooded.

They make sure to put everybody else out of business and take over or for example, even if you want it for the longest time, if you want to do business in China, guess what?

You have to have a 51% Chinese owner, you have to make sure that you're in fact gonna make sure that they have access to the intellectual property.

It goes on and on.

It's about being fair and look, it's about saving American jobs because if we, we allow them to continue what they're doing to flood the market with evs that are incredibly cheap.

They're not making any money on them deliberately doing it to put other people out of business.

So we're gonna protect the American auto workers.

We're gonna take American steel and American aluminum.

Do you believe this will lead to retaliation from China?

Well, I'm sure China will talk a lot about it but the fact is China already is what you might say, way over, way over their, their skis on this.

What they'll do, I don't think it'll lead to any international conflict or anything like that.

But I think they'll probably try to figure out how they can raise tariffs, maybe on products that are unrelated.

Lastly, Mr President, over 15 million jobs uh have been created under your watch, the unemployment rate under 4% for 27 straight months, the stock market at a record high.

Why don't households feel wealthy right now?

Well, first of all, if you look at the report coming out of the Michigan survey, over 60% of the people in America feel they're, they're personally in good shape.

They're personally in good shape, but they look out and they say the rest of the world is not in good shape.

Other people aren't in good shape.

I think inflation has gone slightly up.

This wasn't 9% when I came in and it's now down about 3%.

But the fact is that I think people are just uncertain and that's why we got to be steady stay the course and continue to produce this incredible job and the job and by the way to pay for the jobs are, are outpacing the inflation rate they pay.

We're, we're gonna, we're gonna be able to deal with this.

It's gonna take a little more time, but we're just focused on it, Mr President.

Thank you so much.

We appreciate it.

Thank you, man.

Thank you.