Biden to Announce New Tariffs on Chinese EVs and Solar Equipment

President Biden will announce new tariffs on Chinese products next week, with electric cars among the products targeted, Reuters has reported, citing unnamed sources in the know.

Besides electric vehicles, tariffs will also be imposed on semiconductors and solar power equipment.

According to a Bloomberg report also citing unnamed sources, the new tariff round will also include batteries.

Chinese EVs are already subject to a hefty 25% import tariff in the United States. However, a few months ago it emerged this may not be enough to protect local carmakers, with the WSJ reporting that the Biden administration was mulling over additional import duties on a number of goods from China.

The report follows weeks of discussions, it appears, after the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office made tariff recommendations to the White House, Reuters wrote. It also follows a number of signals from senior U.S. officials that they have a problem with cheap Chinese products including transition tech such as solar equipment and EVs.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen notably said in April that China was overproducing transition goods and this was depressing prices on the global market.

“China’s overcapacity distorts global prices and production patterns and hurts American firms and workers, as well as firms and workers around the world,” Yellen said.

Indeed, cheap Chinese panels and EVs are pressuring global prices everywhere they are being sold but for those using the goods, this is a positive. For those producing them—not so much. The conflict is especially sharp in the solar panel space, both in Europe and the U.S. Local producers cannot compete on cost with their Chinese rivals but ambitions solar capacity plans by governments depend on cheap, not expensive, panels.

The same is true of EVs. With EV sales mandates and Western electric cars still more expensive than comparable ICE models, and with incentives drying up, the only way to meet sales targets is with cheap imports. But that’s problematic because it would hurt local producers, hence tariffs as an attempt to level the playing field.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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