US President Joe Biden has slapped new tariffs on cheap electric vehicles, batteries, solar equipment and other products imported from China.
“President Biden’s economic plan supports investment and creates good jobs in key sectors vital to America’s economic future and national security,” the White House said in a statement.
Claiming that China’s “unfair trade practices” in technology transfer, intellectual property and innovation threaten American companies and workers, Washington said Beijing was also flooding global markets with “artificially low-priced exports”.
In this context, the White House announced that Joe Biden had directed the US Trade Representative to increase tariffs on $18 billion of Chinese imports under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act in order to “protect American workers and businesses” in “response to China’s unfair trade practices” and to “remedy the resulting injury”.
Arguing that American workers and businesses can outperform anyone else “as long as there is fair competition”, the White House claimed that the Chinese government has long resorted to “unfair, non-market practices”.
“China’s forced technology transfers and intellectual property theft have created unacceptable risks to America’s supply chains and economic security by allowing it to control 70, 80 and even 90 per cent of global production of critical inputs needed for our technologies, infrastructure, energy and health care,” the statement said.
It also noted that these “non-market policies and practices” have contributed to China’s growing overcapacity and export surges that “threaten to significantly harm” American workers, businesses and communities.
“The actions taken today against China’s unfair trade practices are carefully targeted at strategic sectors where the United States, under President Biden, has made historic investments to create and sustain good-paying jobs, unlike recent Republican proposals in Congress that would threaten jobs and raise costs across all sectors,” the Biden administration said, also criticising Republican proposals.
The new tariffs announced by the White House are as follows:
– From 25 per cent to 100 per cent in 2024 for electric vehicles;
– Tariffs on lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles from 7.5 per cent to 25 per cent in 2024;
– For semiconductors, from 25 per cent to 50 per cent by 2025;
– For solar cells from 25% to 50% in 2024;
– 0% to 50% in 2024 for certain medical products such as syringes and needles;
– Tariffs on certain steel and aluminium products from 0-7.5% to 25% in 2024.
National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard told reporters that they were designed to ensure that US green technology and manufacturing industries “are not undermined by a flood of unfairly low-priced exports from China in areas such as electric vehicle batteries, critical medical devices, steel and aluminium semiconductors, and solar energy”.
According to Axios, Biden administration officials said they do not know how or if Beijing will retaliate, but they expect Beijing to speak publicly and raise its voice.
“I hope we don’t see a significant response from China, but that’s always a possibility,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Bloomberg.
White House officials argue that the tariffs will not increase US inflation because the amount of goods they target is too small.
