US considers raising tariffs on Chinese electric cars, solar products: WSJ

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THE US is considering raising tariffs on some Chinese goods, including electric cars, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Thursday (Dec 21), citing sources it did not identify.

This comes as the US attempts to limit reliance on China in the clean-energy supply chain and shield its own green industry against cheaper Chinese exports.

Officials in President Joe Biden’s administration have largely left in place Trump-era tariffs on around US$300 billion worth of Chinese goods. But the White House and other agencies are debating the levies again, the sources said, with an eye on completing a review of the tariffs early in the new year.

Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) are already subject to a 25 per cent tariff, which has limited the number of cars Chinese automakers are sending to the US. China’s BYD, for example – which is on the cusp of overtaking Elon Musk’s Tesla as the world’s biggest seller of electric cars – does not retail its passenger vehicles in the US.

Raising those EV tariffs would therefore likely have little immediate impact on US consumers, according to the report.

Increasing tensions over trade could hurt the recovery in China’s yuan, which is among the worst-performing currencies in Asia this year. The offshore yuan pared its gains after the report and was little changed against the US dollar at 7.1484.