WASHINGTON—The Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has questioned the merits of tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on billions of dollars of Chinese goods, stating that they have harmed American consumers. Yellen is the first Biden official to criticize the existing tariffs and her comments raise the question of whether the White House is preparing to course change on China trade policy. “My own personal view is that tariffs were not put in place on China in a way that was very thoughtful with respect to where there are problems and what is the U.S. interest,” Yellen said in an interview with The New York Times last week. President Joe Biden kept the tariffs on nearly $360 billion worth of Chinese goods that were put in by the Trump administration. But he also launched a comprehensive review of the “phase 1” trade agreement signed with Beijing in early 2020. “Tariffs are …