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Last year, President Biden announced sweeping new orders for the U.S. auto industry to force a transition to electric vehicles. Under these radical Green New Deal rules, by 2032, two-thirds of cars and trucks sold in the U.S. market will have to be electric vehicles.
These rules are so bad for consumers and have met so much resistance from American workers that the administration is already reviewing them.
Biden’s goals are wrong. And his commitment to climate radicalism threatens to devastate an industry that has been the bedrock of America’s middle class for a century.
President Biden speaks at the United Auto Workers Conference at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, DC, on January 24, 2024. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Instead of strangling our auto sector with regulations, he should focus on protecting it from the very Chinese automakers who are dumping cars onto the global market and setting their sights on the United States.
Biden vetoes bipartisan bill to protect US EV industry from China
Our auto industry employs more than 4 million Americans. These companies and workers have supported American manufacturing for decades. But Chinese EVs pose an existential threat to this important manufacturing hub, which supports manufacturing jobs from Michigan to Missouri.
China has emerged as a leading automobile manufacturer in recent years, and will overtake Japan as the world’s largest automobile exporter in 2023. China’s dominance is no coincidence. To get ahead, the Chinese Communist Party has poured hundreds of billions in industrial subsidies, stolen intellectual property and imposed forced technology transfers.
As a result, China now holds an overwhelming share of the global market for automobiles, especially EVs and their component parts.
America should ban Chinese EVs
That’s why Biden has completely opposite ideas. His EV mandate threatens to weaken U.S. automakers and make the industry even more dependent on Chinese parts. That is an outcome that American workers cannot endure.
We’ve seen this movie before. Back in 2000, Congress voted to grant China most-favored-nation status and admit it to the World Trade Organization. As a result of this decision, our country lost nearly 4 million good jobs due to the trade deficit. Cheap imports from China destroyed our manufacturing base. Factories closed and entire towns withered away. It started with cheap consumer goods, but now China is also trying to dominate expensive advanced products. It’s still made in America.
Cheap Chinese electric cars pose a ‘safety risk’ to Americans: ‘stay away’, economist warns
We cannot allow this to happen. Never again.
President Donald Trump was the first to act. In 2018, he imposed a 25% tariff on car imports from China. But since then, China’s auto industry has grown further. And we know that China is looking to build factories in Mexico to avoid these tariffs altogether. This means that China is actively looking for loopholes in trade laws. Congress should do more.
That’s why I’m introducing tough new laws to stem the avalanche of EVs in China. My bill would impose a new 100% tariff on all vehicles from China, raising the total tariff on those vehicles to 125%.
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Establishing new rules of origin would also close this “Mexican loophole.” Block Chinese car manufacturers You cannot avoid customs duties by manufacturing your car in a third country. This would go a long way in pre-empting the flood of EVs into the US market.
If China can cheat to gain an advantage, it has every right to impose trade restrictions to protect our workers and ensure our auto companies can compete on a level playing field.
The need is urgent. We must act before China’s expansion into Mexico causes another wave of job losses in our auto sector. How can we stand by while our greatest enemy is directly targeting autoworkers?
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The solution is simple. If he truly wants to protect American workers, Joe Biden must immediately raise tariffs on Chinese autos instead of doubling down on the Green New Deal’s mandates.
Biden’s policies are making China rich and America poor. It’s time to change the equation.
Click here to read more from Sen.Josh Hawley
