President Joe Biden has imposed significant new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, advanced batteries, solar cells, steel, aluminum and medical equipment, attacking Donald Trump along the way as he adopted a strategy that is increasing friction between the two largest economies. big in the world.
The Democratic president said Tuesday that Chinese government subsidies ensure that the country's companies do not have to make profits, giving them an unfair advantage in global trade.
“American workers can work and compete better than anyone as long as the competition is fair,” Biden said in the White House Rose Garden. “But for too long it hasn't been fair. For years, the Chinese government has invested state money in Chinese companies… it's not competition, it's cheating.”
China immediately promised retaliation. Its Commerce Ministry said Beijing opposed the U.S. tariff increases and would take steps to defend its interests.
Biden will maintain tariffs put in place by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, while raising others, including quadrupling tariffs on electric vehicles to more than 100 percent and doubling tariffs on semiconductors to 50 percent.
The new measures affect $18 billion in imported Chinese goods, including steel and aluminum, semiconductors, electric vehicles, critical minerals, solar cells and cranes, the White House said. The electric vehicle figure, while grabbing headlines, may have more of a political than practical impact in the United States, which imports very few Chinese electric vehicles.
The United States imported $427 billion in goods from China in 2023 and exported $148 billion to the world's second-largest economy, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, a trade gap that has persisted for decades and has become an increasingly sensitive topic in Washington.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the revised tariffs were justified because China was stealing American intellectual property. But Tai recommended tariff exclusions for hundreds of import categories of industrial machinery from China, including 19 for solar product 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: “It's been feeding them for a long time.” The Democrat said Trump had not cracked down on China's trade abuses as he had promised he would do during his presidency.
Karoline Leavitt, Trump campaign press secretary, called the new tariffs a “weak and futile attempt” to distract from Biden's own support for electric vehicles in the United States, which Trump says will lead to layoffs at manufacturing plants. automobiles.
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 American voters.
Trade tariff
Biden has struggled to convince voters of the effectiveness of his economic policies despite a backdrop of low unemployment and above-trend economic growth. A Reuters/Ipsos poll last month showed Trump with a seven percentage point lead over Biden on the economy.
Analysts have warned that a trade dispute could raise the costs of electric vehicles overall, hurting Biden's climate goals and his goal of creating 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 US presidential candidates have departed from the free trade consensus that once reigned in Washington, a period culminated by China's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001. Trump's broader imposition of tariffs during his 2017-2021 presidency started a tariff war with China. .
As part of the long-awaited tariff update, Biden will increase tariffs this year from 25 percent to 100 percent on electric vehicles, raising total tariffs to 102.5 percent, from 7.5 percent to 25 percent on lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and other battery parts, and 25 to 50 percent in photovoltaic cells used to make solar panels. Some critical minerals will see tariffs increased from nothing to 25 percent.
In 2025 and 2026, more tariffs will be applied to semiconductors, as well as lithium-ion batteries not used in electric vehicles, graphite and permanent magnets, as well as rubber medical and surgical gloves.
Several lawmakers have called for massive increases in tariffs on Chinese vehicles or an outright ban over data privacy concerns. Relatively few light vehicles made in China are currently imported.
The United Auto Workers, a politically important union that endorsed Biden, said the tariff measures would ensure “the transition to electric vehicles is a just transition.”
