United States: US President Joe Biden has declared a 100 percent tariff on electric vehicles manufactured in China. This move is aimed at safeguarding US manufacturers from the competition of inexpensive imports.
The White House said that it was putting stricter restrictions on $18 billion worth of Chinese goods, a move that is sure to exacerbate trade tensions between the two largest economies in the world.
According to sources, the action was taken after a four-year evaluation and was intended as a preventive measure to prohibit low-cost, heavily subsidized Chinese items from entering the US market and stunting the expansion of the country’s green technology industry.
Tariffs on lithium batteries will increase from 7.5 percent to 25 percent, on key minerals from zero to 25 percent, on solar cells from 25 percent to 50 percent, and on semiconductors from 25 percent to 50 percent, in addition to a tariff hike on EVs from 25 percent to 100 percent.
The zero to 7.5 percent tariffs that currently apply to steel, aluminum, and personal protective equipment will increase to 25 percent.
Biden claimed that the higher taxes were a reasonable response to China’s overcapacity in the EV industry, notwithstanding the possibility of Beijing retribution. According to sources, China produces 30 million EVs annually but can only sell 22 to 23 million of them domestically.
Due to tariffs imposed by Donald Trump during his presidency, Chinese electric vehicles were all but shut out of the US, making Biden’s car tariffs purely symbolic. Lobby groups, however, have warned of a potential threat in the future as Beijing looks to exports to offset the fragility of its own economy.
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