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The Biden administration is sharply raising tariffs on Chinese imports, including electric vehicles, batteries and semiconductors, in a bid to protect U.S. jobs ahead of the November election.
The White House said the measure “carefully targets strategic sectors” including aluminum and steel, critical minerals, solar cells, port cranes and medical products. The tariffs will apply to $18 billion worth of Chinese goods.
This year, the United States will quadruple its tariffs on Chinese EVs to 100%, and will nearly triple import tariffs on steel and aluminum. Tariffs on Chinese semiconductors will double from 2025. Tariffs on solar cells will also double to 50% this year.
The move follows a multiyear review of tariffs on $300 billion worth of Chinese goods that then-President Donald Trump imposed as part of his trade war with China. U.S. officials said President Joe Biden’s administration has decided to keep most of Trump’s other tariffs in place.
White House National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard said the move will ensure that “the historic investment in jobs spurred by President Biden’s actions will not be undermined by a flood of unfairly undervalued exports from China.” I will do so.”
He added: “China will use the same strategy as before, continuing to invest despite China’s overcapacity and flooding the world market with cheap exports due to unfair practices, at the expense of other countries.” “We are trying to promote growth in our own countries,” he added.
The U.S. government plans to more than triple tariffs on Chinese lithium-ion EV batteries to 25% this year. Similar measures will be implemented for lithium-ion batteries for non-electric vehicles starting in 2026, but officials say the move is meant to give U.S. companies more time to develop the technology.
Prior to the announcement, senior U.S. government officials denied in a press conference that the measures were related to the presidential election. “This has nothing to do with politics,” said one official.
But in recent months, Mr. Biden has been pushing for more union votes in order to win in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, a key industrial battleground, and Michigan, home to many of the nation’s automakers. He is taking other actions that appear to be intentional. Biden opposes a proposed takeover of U.S. Steel by Japanese group Nippon Steel, even though Tokyo is the most important U.S. ally in the Indo-Pacific region.
U.S. officials said the sectors targeted are the same areas that Mr. Biden has prioritized development through legislation such as the TIP Act and the Anti-Inflation Act.
One official said that since Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in November, the U.S. has repeatedly threatened to “hinder” China’s development and undermine efforts the two countries have taken to stabilize relations. He said he did not try to do so.
But the official said China is producing at a pace “far exceeding reasonable estimates of global demand,” flooding the global market and undermining the United States’ ability to build capacity.
“This reduces the resilience of our supply chains and makes all of us around the world even more vulnerable to economic coercion,” he added.
Following media reports last week that Biden would raise tariffs, Beijing said Washington was trying to “denigrate and suppress” the Chinese economy.
“China consistently opposes unilateral tariff increases that violate the WTO,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday. [World Trade Organization] We will comply with the regulations and take all necessary measures to protect our legitimate rights and interests. ”
The US imports almost no EVs from China. But Greta Peisch, who most recently served as general counsel at the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, said raising auto tariffs is an important step to ensure U.S. companies can compete in the future.
“We are investing in new technologies, electric vehicle production and battery factories. [so] To sustain these investments, we have to have some level of confidence that there will be a level playing field going forward,” said Peisch, who is now with the Wiley Law Firm.
“It’s very important that companies understand that their investments will not be eroded by an influx of Chinese imports for a year or two or years,” he said.
China is facing pressure on various fronts. The European Commission is also investigating EV imports from China and is expected to increase tariffs in the coming months.
Additional reporting by Edward White in Shanghai, Kana Inagaki in Tokyo, and Ding Wenjie in Beijing
