US Braces for Chinese Tariff Blowback
(14 May 2024 – China) China is anticipated to react strongly to new US tariff actions on US$18 billion of Chinese imports including electric vehicles (EVs), solar panels, semiconductors, medical supplies batteries and more.
President Joe Biden is quadrupling tariffs on imported Chinese EVs to 100 percent. The import tax on Chinese solar cells will double to 50 percent and tariffs on many Chinese steel and aluminium imports will rise three-fold from to 25 percent.
The Biden administration has asserted the hiked tariffs will have “no inflationary impact” because they are not “across the board” of the economy and they only target specific sectors.
“The US’s escalation of Section 301 tariffs contradicts President Biden’s commitments not to suppress or contain China’s development and not to seek decoupling from China,” a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement. “The US should immediately correct its wrongdoings and revoke the tariff measures against China. China will take resolute measures to defend its own interests.”
“China heavily subsidised all these products, pushing Chinese companies to produce far more than the rest of the world can absorb and then dumping the excess products on the markets at unfairly low prices. When you make tactics like these, it’s not competing – it’s cheating” Biden commented at the White House.
"I have been very clear in my engagement with the Chinese that we believe there needs to be a level playing field for competition, and that we have particular concern about clean energy, semiconductors and areas where China has, through its policies, encouraged so much investment that it's led to overcapacity” said US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen
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