President Joe Biden has imposed major new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, advanced batteries, solar cells, steel, aluminum and medical equipment, attacking Donald Trump along the way as he pursues a strategy that is increasing friction between the two largest economies of the world.
The Democratic president said Tuesday that Chinese government subsidies ensure the country’s companies don’t make a profit, giving them an unfair advantage in global trade.
“American workers can work better and compete with anyone as long as the competition is fair,” Biden said in the White House Rose Garden. “But for a long time it hasn’t been fair. For years, the Chinese government has poured state money into Chinese companies… it’s not competition, it’s cheating.”
China immediately promised retaliation. The Ministry of Commerce said Beijing opposes US tariff increases and will take measures to defend its interests.
Biden will maintain tariffs imposed by his Republican predecessor Donald Trump while increasing others, including quadrupling duties on electric vehicles to more than 100 percent and doubling duties on semiconductor tariffs to 50 percent.
The new measures affect $18 billion worth of imported Chinese products, including steel and aluminum, semiconductors, electric vehicles, critical minerals, solar cells and cranes, the White House said. The EV number, while headline-grabbing, may have more of a political than practical impact in the US, which imports very few Chinese EVs.
The US imported $427 billion worth of goods from China in 2023 and exported $148 billion to the world’s second-largest economy, according to the US Census Bureau, a trade gap that has persisted for decades and has become a increasingly sensitive issue in Washington.
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the revised tariffs were justified because China was stealing US intellectual property. But Tai recommended tariff exclusions for hundreds of categories of industrial machinery imports from China, including 19 for solar manufacturing equipment.
The tariffs come amid a heated campaign between Biden and Trump, his Republican predecessor, to show who is tougher on China.
Asked to respond to Trump’s comments that China was eating America’s lunch, Biden said of his rival: “He’s been feeding them for a long time.” The Democrat said Trump had failed to crack down on Chinese trade abuses, as he promised he would during his presidency.
Karoline Leavitt, press secretary for Trump’s campaign, called the new tariffs a “weak and futile attempt” to divert attention from Biden’s own support for EVs in the United States, which Trump says will lead to layoffs at auto plants .
Administration officials said their measures are combined with domestic investment in key industries and are unlikely to worsen a bout of inflation that has already angered U.S. voters.
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Biden has struggled to convince voters of the effectiveness of his economic policies, despite a scenario of low unemployment and above-trend economic growth. A Reuters/Ipsos poll last month showed Trump had a seven percentage point lead over Biden on the economy.
Analysts have warned that a trade conflict could increase EV costs overall, undermining Biden’s climate goals and his aim to create manufacturing jobs.
Biden has said he wants to win this era of competition with China, but not launch a trade war. He has worked in recent months to ease tensions in one-on-one talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Both 2024 U.S. presidential candidates have moved away from the free trade consensus that once reigned in Washington, a period capped by China’s accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001. Trump’s broader imposition of tariffs during his 2017 presidency— 2021 started a tariff war with China.
As part of the long-awaited tariff update, Biden will increase tariffs this year from 25% to 100% on EVs, bringing total tariffs to 102.5%, from 7.5% to 25% on lithium-ion EV batteries and others battery parts and 25% to 50% in photovoltaic cells used to manufacture solar panels. Some critical minerals will have their tariffs increased from zero to 25 percent.
More tariffs will be applied in 2025 and 2026 on semiconductors, as well as lithium-ion batteries that are not used in electric vehicles, graphite and permanent magnets, as well as rubber medical and surgical gloves.
Several lawmakers have called for massive tariff increases on Chinese vehicles or an outright ban on data privacy concerns. There are relatively few Chinese-made light vehicles currently being imported.
The United Auto Workers, a politically important union that supported Biden, said the tariff measures would ensure that “the transition to electric vehicles is a just transition.”
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
