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Excerpt from etn.newsThe US announced new levies on $18 billion worth of Chinese imports, largely in the clean energy space, including a 100 percent tax on Chinese electric vehicles imported into the country. The move had been expected, with news reports indicating such an announcement was likely this week.
The tax on EVs was raised four-fold to 100 percent from 25 percent, while rates on Chinese solar cells were bumped up to 50 percent from 25 percent. Tariffs on some steel and aluminum imports will increase more than three-fold to up to 25 percent this year. The tariff on lithium-ion batteries for EVs and lithium batteries meant for other uses was also tripled. Other items on which the US ramped up tariffs are medical needles and syringes, ship-to-shore cranes, rubber medical gloves and face masks.
The US said the new tax levies were necessary to protect American industries from unfair competition. A senior official was quoted as telling journalists on a call that “China is producing at a rate and with a trajectory that’s far in excess of any plausible estimate of global demand,” adding: “That is going to flood the global market with supply that undercuts our ability to build productive capacity at home and … leaves all of us across the world more vulnerable to economic coercion.”
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