April 9, 2021:-Leading economist Stephen Roach said he was curious that U.S. Joe Biden had left much of his policies on China in place.

Roach, a senior person at Yale University, said Biden kept the flawed U.S.-China phase one trade deal and China’s tariffs while reversing many different policies enacted by Donald Trump.

“Why has he singled out the China-Trump policy as one that is worth sustaining when he has tried to wipe the slate clean of every other potential Trump policy that he inherited? That’s an important question that needs to be answered,” Roach said CNBC on Thursday.

Both China and U.S. were engaged in a trade war during Trump’s terms that threatened to derail the economy after both sides slapped retaliatory tariffs on the products. The phase one trade deal was on pause on the trade fight but did not go back to those elevated tariffs.

Economists and businesses fight that Trump’s tariffs on China will be harmful to the U.S. economy and unsuccessful in forcing China to reverse its unfair trade practices. Meanwhile, some observers said the taxes could give the U.S. leverage over China.

Biden disagreed with Trump’s approach to China but is not in a hurry to reverse his predecessor’s policies, said Biden. His administration also suggests that it’s open to using tariffs to fight China’s unfair trade practices.  U.S.-China relations got off to a rocky start under the Biden administration.

Last month, the two countries’ first high-level meeting kicked off with an exchange of insults. The U.S. and some of its Western allies slapped sanctions on Chinese officials and entities for human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region.  Beijing retaliated against the U.S. and its allies with its sanctions.Roach, a former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, said he’s “very concerned” about escalating U.S.-China rhetoric.

“The situation is going from bad to worse, and it doesn’t have to do that,” he said. “We need, I think, a more level-headed approach from the U.S. side as well as from the Chinese side to go back to the areas that we have in common.”