The United States has unveiled a sweeping array of new tariffs on Chinese goods, with electric vehicles being a key focus of president Joe Biden’s announcement. These measures appear to be designed to protect US manufacturers from cheap imports and could increase trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies,
“American workers can out-work and out-compete anyone as long as the competition is fair, but for too long it hasn’t been fair,” Biden said during a speech in the White House Rose Garden. “We’re not going to let China flood our market,” he added, as reported by. Meanwhile, levies will rise from 7.5% to 25% on lithium batteries, which shouldn’t affect US production that much if these batteries aren’t sourced from China.
Tariffs on steel and aluminium, which range from 0% to 7.5%, will also be raised to 25%, while its from 0% to 25% on critical minerals, from 25% to 50% on solar cells and from 25% to 50% on semiconductors. The US imports very few Chinese-made EVs, with some experts viewing the eye-grabbing 100% duty being more of a political move than a practical one. According toAmong those brands, Geely-owned Polestar and Lotus are the only ones that import EVs, with the latter doing so in extremely limited quantities.