US President Joe Biden called for increasing customs duties on steel imported from China by three times “to protect American producers from the flood of cheap imports coming from Beijing.”

This step reflects the intersection of Biden’s international trade policy with his efforts to attract voters in Pennsylvania, which is likely to play a pivotal role in determining the presidential elections next November.

In addition to enhancing tariffs on steel, Biden will also seek to increase duties on Chinese aluminum by three times.

According to data from the US Department of Commerce, the current customs rate is 7.5% on steel and aluminum, amid the US administration’s strictures on what it has described on more than one occasion as “fighting Chinese dumping of goods.”

The White House also announced the opening of an investigation into what it described as “China’s unfair practices in the fields of shipbuilding, maritime transport, and logistics activities,” and stressed that “steel is an essential component of our national shipbuilding industry.”

Last week, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said, following a visit to Beijing, that China is distorting markets and eroding competition by unfairly flooding the market with steel below market cost.