US plans to impose 100% import tariffs on Chinese cars

Not 27.5% like today, but 100%. According to The Wall Street Journal, this is the import tariff that President Biden will announce next week on electric cars imported from China into the United States. This has made it impossible for the Chinese to gain a foothold in America. Meanwhile, it remains to be seen what steps the EU will take.

The Wall Street Journal has learned that Joe Biden will introduce new import tariffs on Chinese goods next Tuesday. It mainly concerns green technology such as solar panels, batteries, but also electric cars. That means there is a de facto sales ban for those products in the US.

To date, electric cars from China in the US are subject to a 25% penalty on top of the general import tax of 2.5% on each car imported into the US. In practice, there is already a 27.5% levy on Chinese e-cars, but that rate will now nearly quadruple to 100%.

In this way, Chinese electric car manufacturers – who are currently absent from the US due to high import tariffs – will certainly not want to do so in the future.

Undoubtedly, the decision — if it is actually implemented next week — is an election move for Biden, who has faced off against his opponent, Donald Trump, who has said he plans to impose a 60% import tariff on all Chinese products if reelected. – The chosen one.

Not surprisingly, such a decision was not well received in China. China has already announced “To take necessary steps to protect its rights and interests.”

Meanwhile in Europe

Such an increase in import duties is something the EU is considering, but has not yet decided. Last year, the European Commission opened an investigation into improper state aid to Chinese carmakers. The EU will decide whether to increase the current import tariff by 10% after the results of the study, expected this autumn, are released.

It may come as a surprise, but not all European car manufacturers support it. Although they face a lot of competition from cheap Chinese e-cars, companies such as BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen Group are not interested in imposing additional restrictions on Chinese carmakers as China threatens to do the same to their cars exported there. That would certainly be a major blow to those brands that have major interests in China.

Chinese carmakers such as BYD, which is building a factory in Hungary, and Chery, which recently took over an old Nissan factory in Barcelona in partnership with Spain’s Ebro to build cars under the Omoda brand, are already bracing for European import tariffs. These are not imposed on cars built in the EU.