US President Joe Biden has been urged to ban the import of Chinese-made electric cars into the US.
“Chinese electric vehicles pose an existential threat to the American auto industry,” said Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.
Brown’s comments were the strongest made by a US congressman on the issue, while others have called for high tariffs to keep Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) out of the country.
In February, the White House announced that the US had launched an investigation into whether Chinese cars pose a national security risk.
“We cannot allow China to bring their state-sponsored tricks to the American auto industry,” Senator Brown said in a video posted on social media platform X.
Senator Brown, from Ohio, where the auto industry is important, is seeking a fourth term in the Senate in November’s election.
In February, President Biden said that China’s policies “could pose a risk to our national security by flooding our market with their vehicles” and that he “will not allow that to happen on my watch”.
The White House had said Washington could impose restrictions over concerns that technology in Chinese-made vehicles could ‘collect vast amounts of sensitive data about their drivers and passengers’.
China is vying with Japan to become the world’s biggest carmaker and exporter. However, the number of Chinese cars in the US is extremely low due to the fact that the US currently imposes a 27.5 per cent tariff on vehicles.
Airlines demand action against China
On Thursday, America’s largest airlines asked the Biden administration to stop approving new flights between the US and China.
In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, they argued that China’s “harmful anti-competitive policies” put US airlines at a disadvantage.
The letter was signed by Airlines for America, an industry lobby group whose members include American Airlines, Delta and United, and other unions representing airline workers, including the Air Line Pilots Association.
“If the growth of China’s aviation market is allowed to continue unchecked and without concern for equal market access, flights will continue to be ceded to Chinese carriers at the expense of U.S. workers and businesses,” the letter said.
In the letter, the US carriers argued that during the pandemic, China imposed severe restrictions on market access and imposed harsh rules affecting operations, customers and the treatment of US airline crews.
The “anti-competitive disadvantage” with China was exacerbated in 2022 when the Asian giant’s airlines continued to have access to Russian airspace while US carriers stopped using it as a result of the war, the letter said.
