The Biden administration will announce new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and other products next week, according to people familiar with the matter, as President Biden looks for ways to protect the nascent U.S. clean energy sector from a surge in cheap Chinese imports. . .
The move comes amid growing concern within the administration that Biden’s efforts to boost domestic manufacturing of clean energy products could be undermined by China, which has been flooding global markets with solar panels, batteries, vehicles electrical and other cheap products.
The long-awaited tariffs are the result of a four-year review of levies that former President Donald J. Trump imposed on more than $300 billion of Chinese imports in 2018. Most of Trump’s tariffs are expected to remain in place. , but Mr. Biden plans to go further by raising taxes in areas that the president loaded with subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
That includes Chinese electric vehicles, which currently face a 25 percent tariff. The administration is expected to increase that rate to a much higher rate to make it prohibitively expensive to buy a Chinese electric vehicle. The administration has been considering tariffs of up to 100 percent, according to a person familiar with the deliberations.
Biden moved earlier this year to block Internet-connected Chinese cars and trucks from entering the U.S. auto market, including electric vehicles, saying they posed national security risks because their operating systems could send sensitive information to Beijing.
The president is seeking to increase pressure on China and demonstrate his willingness to protect American manufacturing before his showdown against Trump in November’s presidential election.
The fate of the China tariffs has been the subject of intense debate inside the White House since Biden took office, with economic and political advisers often clashing over how to proceed. But China’s decision this year to ramp up production of the same products — electric vehicles, lithium batteries and solar panels — that the Biden administration has been investing billions of dollars in to begin production in the United States has reignited tensions. trade tensions between the two countries. forcing Biden to move forward with more aggressive trade restrictions.
Trump has said he would escalate his trade war with China if he is re-elected and said earlier this year that he is considering imposing tariffs of 60 percent or more on Chinese imports.
The scale of the Biden administration’s tariffs, which are expected to apply to Chinese electric vehicles, batteries and solar products, is unclear. Bloomberg News previously reported on the planned release of the review, which is being conducted by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Keith Bradshercontributed with reports.