Biden urged to ban China-made electric vehicles
We cannot allow China to bring its government-backed cheating to the American auto industry
Sherrod Brown is a fairly liberal Democrat from a now-fairly-red state. There was a time when unions could deliver Ohio, but no more.
Brown needs Biden to show Ohio's rust-belt workers that he's trying to help them.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
President Joe Biden has been urged to ban imports of Chinese-made electric cars to the US.
The chair of the Senate Banking Committee, Senator Sherrod Brown, wrote "Chinese electric vehicles are an existential threat to the American auto industry".
His comments are the strongest yet by any US lawmaker on the issue, while others have called for steep tariffs to keep Chinese electric vehicles (EV) out of the country.
In February, the White House said the US was opening an investigation into whether Chinese cars pose a national security risk.
"We cannot allow China to bring its government-backed cheating to the American auto industry", Senator Brown said in a video on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Senator Brown, who is a Democrat from the the car-producing state of Ohio, is seeking to win a fourth term in office in November's election.
The White House did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment.
In February, President Biden said that China's policies "could flood our market with its vehicles, posing risks to our national security" and that he would "not let that happen on my watch."
Washington could impose restrictions over concerns that the technology in Chinese-made cars could "collect large amounts of sensitive data on their drivers and passengers", the White House said.
It warned cars that are connected to the internet "regularly use their cameras and sensors to record detailed information on US infrastructure; interact directly with critical infrastructure; and can be piloted or disabled remotely".
China is the world's largest producer of cars and vying with Japan to be the biggest exporter of vehicles.
The number of Chinese cars on US roads is, however, extremely low due to the fact the latter currently imposes a 27.5% tariff on the vehicles.
This week, while on a trip to China, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Beijing that Washington would not allow a repeat of the "China shock" of the early 2000s, when Chinese imports flooded into America.
In response, China's vice finance minister, Liao Min, expressed "grave concern" over restrictions the US has imposed on trade and investment.
Mr Liao said China's competitive advantages are due to its "large-scale market, complete industrial system and abundant human resources".
Also on Thursday, America's biggest airlines asked the Biden administration to halt approvals of new flights between the US and China.
In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Transportation Department Secretary Pete Buttigieg they said China's “damaging anti-competitive policies” put US carriers at a disadvantage.
“If the growth of the Chinese aviation market is allowed to continue unchecked and without concern for equality of access in the market, flights will continue to be relinquished to Chinese carriers at the expense of US workers and businesses.”
The world's two biggest economies have been locked in a trade war since 2018 when the then-Trump administration imposed tariffs on more than $360bn (£287bn) of Chinese goods.
Beijing retaliated with tariffs on more than $110bn of US products.
President Joe Biden has largely kept those tariffs in place.
Last year the value of goods the US bought from China fell by just over 20% to $427bn. At the same time, US exports to China dipped by 4% to just under $148bn.
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Who else remembers when the US had to impose quotas to prevent Japanese cars from crushing the "Big Three"?
I remember when Made in Japan was a pejorative. My father bought what later became a Toyota Land Cruiser that an airman brought back in the 60’s. He bought a Datsun in 1971. By 1980 they were beating the big three badly and we had a quota for four years.
The auto union contracts eventually priced American made cars out of favorably competing with those made in Japan.
I try to not buy anything made in China.
Top Management remuneration and shareholder dividends did it.
Good luck with that. You'd be surprised about the number of things made in China that are in included in your purchases.
Almost EVERYTHING I buy is made in China, and I can live very comfortably on a FRACTION of what it costs you. But, as long as you're happy, keep up the good work.
If we blocked Chinese electronics every Walmart in the country would go out of business.
Biden surprisingly left Trump tariffs in place on $350 billion of Chinese goods.
PARANOIA!!!
LOL. Absolutely, if Chinese cars are brought to America they will photograph anyone who enters the vehicle, suck up the information from any documents containing chips carried by the passengers, determine where the car drives to, and record any conversations carried out in the cars, and send all of that up to the Chinese spy satellites over America for transfer to the "COMMIES".
HYPOCRISY!!!
LOL. As Outis said above: "Top Management remuneration and shareholder dividends did it." They might have to reduce the multi-million dollar annual compensation they receive (not counting, of course, the stock benefits).
LOL. As if the American government doesn't subsidize the purchase of EVs
LOL. America imposes prohibitive tariffs on Chinese goods while it is concerned about and trying to fight inflation but makes sure the average family has a problem getting by on its income.
LOL. America and China agree to do more to benefit the climate, and then Janet Yellen criticizes China saying it overproduces green energy products.