Biden expected to quadruple tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles to 100%: Source
Biden expected to quadruple tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles to 100%: Source
President Biden is expected to quadruple tariffs on electric vehicles from China in an announcement Tuesday, according to a source familiar with the decision.
China is becoming an increasingly unreliable trade partner. Preventing them from taking over more of America's economy is prudent.
Oh yeah, because there's still cars made in America where the workers get decent wages and working conditions ..
Like, I'm sure they don't in China either.
But what's the difference between a Chinese oligarch who doesn't pay American taxes and an American oligarch who doesn't pay American taxes?
I'm sure there's a couple besides if someone's wealth changes GDP, but are there any that make up for all Americans getting access to affordable EVs?
This move is terrible for the average American, so some different billionaires will make more money then they can spend.
Even if you want to make the case it helps auto workers (it really doesn't) they make up a little over 1% of Americans.
Biden is hurting 100 Americans to "help" 1, because even that US autoworker could buy the affordable EV if they were sold here
Hell, isn't capitalism supposed to be built on the free market? If these billion dollar corporations can only exist if we ban their competition, shouldn't capitalists be screaming to let them burn?
German industry is/was in shambles as they allowed an unreliable trade partner, Russia, to completely take over a segment in the German economy (oil & gas). When that unreliable trade partner pulled the rug in 2022, suddenly Germany is paying out the ass for LNG, reducing factory output, even on-lining coal plants to keep the lights on.
It is simply a bad idea to allow an unreliable trade partner to take over a segment in your economy.
In a completely capitalist market, American manufacturers would be paying Americans less money to make the cars, and if they couldn't find people, they'd move the manufacturing out of the country. Why would they keep a factory here in the US if they could pay Mexicans to build them and ship them to the US with no tariffs (fucked up lobbying and a lousy government has sort of made this example happen, actually)? US auto worker are paid around $18 to $35 an hour. Chinese auto workers average (converted to US currency) $2 to $3.50 an hour.
So you tell me. Do you really want to go pure capitalism, no holds barred, and try to compete with a country paying their people $3 an hour without moving your own manufacturing out of the US? Do you know how many jobs in the US exist only because there's tariffs in place? Do you know that just like Honda, Toyota and other foreign car manufacturers have done, China can avoid most of the tariffs by building their vehicles in the US, instead of shipping all of them in? Getting rid of tariffs would lower the wages of nearly every job you could get in the US. When millions of jobs leave the US, it makes it real easy for a capitalist to start paying less to desperate people, and start thinking that what you're being currently paid is too much.
It's a free market.
And they are taking it.
Free for me to take, so open your doors or I bring a warship. Not free for you to take, so don't even think of entering competition with me or I'll call you names and ban you.
This is very much a mixed bag of news - while it sucks to force ridiculously high tariffs on EV imports the Chinese EV market is currently unsustainably subsidized by the government and domestic companies wouldn't be able to compete. If we want to grow our domestic EV automakers we can't let them be forced to sell vehicle at a perpetual loss.
This is made even more complicated by the fact that EV manufacturing is already being heavily domestically subsidized by PE money - I believe one of the manufacturing startups is currently losing 350k on every car they sell.
I suppose that there are also some externality reasons to favor EVs over ICE vehicles, though because carbon dioxide emissions are a negative externality, for it to produce an economically-efficient outcome, you'd want to internalize that with something like a carbon tax on ICE vehicles rather than a subsidy on EVs.
I think that a subsidy probably only makes much sense from a national security standpoint, if one is worried about China controlling vehicle production.
In World War II, the US was able to leverage vehicle production capacity, and it was a significant factor affecting the war, though I don't know how likely it is that that would be an issue today.
Like, if we get into a WW2-style long slugging match where what matters is how many people you can put on assembly lines, I suspect that China is going to have a significant advantage anyway, due to population. Like, we don't want to get into that kind of situation in the first place.
This is dumb. Americans are being ripped off by car prices and manufacturers who aren't investing in this cheaper tech.
The Chinese cars are cheap because they're going back to basics. Compared to any US DOT approved vehicle, they're slow, they're light, they don't have any bells and whistles. Four wheels, a motor, some simple electronics, and a battery.
Ultimately, that's all you need to get from one place to the next if you don't need highway speeds or crash ratings..
Will high tariffs cause local manufacturers to develop their own version of cheap electric vehicles? Doubtful.
My thought as well, the video Tom Scott did on the mountain town that has bespoke electric vehicles (and strict usage on them for needed business) comes to mind (R2oD1ZHNMFE). I don't know how much is law and how much is companies not caring to cater to that market (even with designs that they sell in Europe), but Kei-like vehicles can still be affordable without being fully unsafe (but the issue of safety is more about the market making larger-and-larger trucks and SUVs, and lack of viable car alternatives paired with high speed limits).
Higher cost really is not a fix. Other concerns like privacy seem like policy could mesh well with low-end (no internet connection, just-a-radio, common off-the-shelf parts, standards+no DRM etc). It would be nice for the option to exist in this space that US car companies are not trying to fill anyway.
I'm sure a lot of the problems are regulation related. For example I don't think you can drive golf carts on most city streets.
Some preplanned communities have separate road systems for smaller vehicles. But if it's not baked in from the start, it's probably tough to add later.
Unfortunately, I think the auto lobby is largely responsible for much of this, and will fight hard to keep it this way.
Let's hope they don't retaliate with batteries
I think that having a battery supply chain that China doesn't control is a major goal, so that probably isn't going to provide much leverage.
Though, personally, I wouldn't want lithium battery prices to spike until that gets sorted out.
Free market at work.
"We don't have any competition for these Chinese EV's so our plan is to price the American public out of buying one even though we don't have any cheap alternative EVs in America. We are so fucked here. If we don't vote Biden we get straight up fascism if we vote for Biden we get a continued oligarchy. Great choices guys!
America is having record fossil fuel production...
It's one of the few things keeping "the economy" afloat on paper.
If Biden let Americans buy affordable Chinese EVs, that hurts the American GDP numbers in a couple ways.
Neoliberals care about GDP more than CEOs care about stock price.
Free market until they lose, then its a walled market. Double standards a the way. But what's really happening is, Biden just took the money from the US car manufacturers.
It's not as if the US market is being closed with Nios and Byds.
Way to fight climate change.
They aren't banning EVs...they just aren't letting China flood the market with foreign spy cars made from shit quality.