(Washington) China “cheats”, but “we are not going to [la] let our market be flooded,” US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday to justify the quadrupling of customs duties on Chinese electric vehicles announced earlier in the day, economic competition with China being at the heart of the presidential campaign.
“We will never let China control the market for these types of vehicles,” insisted Mr. Biden during a press conference at the White House. In passing, he scratched his Republican competitor Donald Trump with whom he will compete in particular in the industrial states decisive for the election, such as Pennsylvania or Michigan.
It is “impossible for [nos] car manufacturers to compete honestly,” judged Joe Biden.
Via his big green plan (IRA) and support for union organizations in the sector, the American president has sought to repeatedly show his support for the American automobile industry, by helping it accelerate its electric shift.
“This is a signal to American manufacturers that the Biden administration is seeking to [les] protect,” said Paul Triolo, researcher specializing in China for Albright Stonebridge Group.
A bet also, which also aims to recreate industrial jobs in states historically affected by deindustrialization and which could prove decisive in the race for the White House, especially Michigan and Pennsylvania.
The Metal Workers Union (USW) also welcomed, in a press release, the White House decision, deeming it necessary to “support our domestic production and our workers”.
But his Republican rival Donald Trump, on the sidelines of his trial in New York, did not fail to joke about a decision that he considers to be in line with those that he himself was able to take as a tenant of the White House.
The American president “wants to put significant tariffs on China, which is what I proposed. Where were you for three and a half years? » he pretended to question his successor.
“My predecessor failed to protect the United States,” Joe Biden replied, adding that Mr. Trump “wants to increase all customs duties, he just doesn’t understand.”
The Republican candidate has in fact made the general increase in customs duties one of the major axes of his economic program in the event of re-election, ensuring that he would counterbalance the effects for American consumers with a tax cut, which will be precisely financed by these new tax revenues.
“Wrong actions” for Beijing
This new series of additional taxes is nevertheless a continuation of those put in place by former President Trump, focusing however on sectors deemed “strategic”, such as semiconductors, vehicle batteries or even steel and aluminum.
These increases or new duties concern a total of 18 billion dollars of Chinese imports.
Part of it also represents a simple increase in already existing duties as part of a review of customs duties introduced by the former president, which Mr. Biden had promised to review.
In the end, all customs duties remain in place, an American official confirmed to AFP, applied to more than 200 billion dollars of imports.
Beijing was quick to react through its Ministry of Commerce which, in a press release, denounced a decision which “will seriously affect the atmosphere of bilateral cooperation”, calling on the United States “to immediately reverse its erroneous actions and to reverse additional tariff measures against China.
Expressing its “strong disapproval,” China stressed that “the WTO has long concluded” that U.S. tariffs “violate its rules,” but “the United States persists in its mistakes again and again.”
The day before, the American Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, had stressed the need for the White House to “ensure that the stimulus provided by the IRA [le grand plan vert voté il y a un an, NDLR] to support these industries, that these investments be protected.”
The American government has invested more than 860 billion dollars, via the IRA, in order to accelerate the production of electric cars, vehicle batteries, but also solar panels and wind turbines “made in America”.
But Washington accuses Beijing of strongly supporting its industries in these strategic sectors with significant subsidies leading to overproduction sold at knockdown prices on the world market, preventing the development of competing industries in other countries.
A fear shared by the European Union and other nations, such as Turkey, Brazil or India, underlined an American official.