Biden imposes 100pc tariffs on Chinese electric cars
Joe Biden has imposed steep tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods, despite Kamala Harris calling similar levies proposed by Donald Trump a “sales tax”.
The US president on Friday confirmed a 100 per cent duty on electric vehicles, 50 per cent on solar cells and 25 per cent on steel and aluminium imports.
Other tariffs will apply to clothing imports, syringes, and face masks, as the government attempts to crack down on cheap imports that are threatening US manufacturing.
The decision comes despite Ms Harris’s criticism of Chinese tariffs proposed by Trump, which she said would amount to a tax on consumers and worsen inflation.
During the presidential debate on Tuesday, she described his plan for 60 per cent tariffs on Chinese imports as a “Trump sales tax”.
Ms Harris cited a study by the Center for American Progress, a Left-wing think tank, that estimates an import duty of that scale would increase pocketbook costs for an average family by $3,900 per year.
However, the Biden-Harris administration backed the Chinese tariffs imposed by Trump during his first term on Friday, maintaining levies on over $300 billion of Chinese goods ranging from toys and T-shirts to internet routers and industrial machinery.
‘Unfair cost advantage’
The decision largely disregarded pleas from automakers for lower tariffs on graphite and critical minerals used in EV battery production. Some companies had told the government they are still dependent on Chinese supplies.
Lael Brainard, a government trade adviser, told Reuters that the electric vehicle tariff reflected the “very significant unfair cost advantage that Chinese electric vehicles in particular are using to dominate car markets at a breathtaking pace in other parts of the world”.
She added: “That’s not going to take place here under the vice-president’s and the president’s leadership.”
Ms Harris has sought to distance herself from some of Trump’s economic plans on the campaign trail, despite supporting similar policies herself.
The Democrat has already adopted the Trump campaign’s “no tax on tips” policy, which would remove the requirement for hospitality workers to pay federal income tax on tips. On Thursday, she described Trump’s version of the policy as a “deceptive stunt”.
Despite their clashes on the debate stage, both candidates have similar policies on China, which is viewed by a significant proportion of the voting population as the biggest threat to the US.
Ms Harris said on Tuesday that Trump had “invited trade wars” during his first term and presided over an administration “selling American chips to China to help them improve and modernise their military”.
Trump hit back that “other countries are going to finally… pay us back for all that we’ve done for the world”. He claimed that China, not the US, would pay for the tariffs he plans to impose.