How Biden is outflanking Trump on China trade, clean energy and climate change 

When it comes to China, President Biden has taken a series of actions in his tough 2024 campaign that sharply contrast his trade and climate change policies with those of his predecessor, Donald Trump. If Mr. Biden’s actions are successful, they could effectively neutralize Mr. Trump’s claims on trade with China and key industrial battleground states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Biden will also strengthen his lead on climate issues, which are important to young voters and progressives.

First, Biden is at odds with China over its ever-increasing carbon footprint. Almost one-third of the world, more than all developed countries in the world combined. (The U.S. comes in a distant second with emissions at about 13%.) Biden is making a key point to climate-focused voters that he can force China to cut its greenhouse gas emissions. . It will likely be impossible to reduce global emissions to the levels scientists think are necessary to prevent climate catastrophe.

For this reason, Biden last week sent America’s top international climate negotiator John Podesta to his Chinese counterpart in Washington in an attempt to win Chinese concessions on coal use that are greater than what the United States and every other country on earth have shown. He was dispatched to have a meeting with Liu Zhenmin. together.bloomberg news report According to an anonymous U.S. official, the two envoys asked “how China can seriously consider slowing the construction of new coal-fired power plants while still meeting its domestic power reliability goals” on superclimate issues. It is said that there was a thorough discussion on reducing methane, a pollutant in the world.

Later this week, the Biden administration will Successive large tariffs Oppose unfair Chinese clean energy technology exports, such as electric vehicles and other trade practices. Huge subsidies by the Chinese government have been going on since 2008, when China raised a large amount of money. An astonishing $320 billion Direct government funding (2008 dollars) for two technologies in China: solar panels and lithium-ion batteries for EVs.

These extraordinary spending have led China to dominate the global clean energy export market, with China’s market share growing from about 25 percent of the global market for PV solar panels and batteries to nearly 75 percent over the past 15 years. China also supports large consumer subsidies and other subsidies, such as providing a consumer subsidy of $10,000 per 770,000 EVs sold in 2017. .

In response to this disparity, the Biden administration plans to announce the following policies: 100% customs duty According to many reports, regarding the import of electric cars from China. Biden: “China is determined to control the future of the auto market, including through unfair practices.”Said During February. “I won’t allow that to happen under my watch.”

These new tariffs on Chinese cars will far exceed the 25% tariffs imposed on Chinese-made EVs during the Trump administration and maintained by Biden.but China’s proposal It is ridiculous that US subsidies are larger than China’s clean technology subsidies. Podesta called them “beyond irony.”

For example, the United States’ 2009 economic stimulus package $2.3 billion Although eligible for the Clean Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit, hundreds of companies that applied received no money. Therefore, China provided approximately 150 times more funding for clean energy production than the United States did in the 2008-2009 stimulus package.

Even after the new law is enacted in 2022, Clean energy tax incentives The total amount of U.S. aid under the Inflation Control Act pales in comparison to more than 15 years of direct subsidies to manufacturers, consumers and local governments in China, which remains a quasi-command-and-control economy led by the Chinese government.

In contrast, when Donald Trump was president, intentionally weakened America’s competitiveness in the clean energy sector as a whole, and electric vehicles in particular, is once again being strengthened at the behest of big oil companies. large funder In this year’s campaign.

In December 2019, President Trump overrode an effort in Congress to extend electric vehicle tax credits beyond 200,000 vehicles per company, a threshold set by GM and Tesla. It’s already a hit. In fact, President Trump has made no mention of the EV consumer tax credit in each federal budget proposal during his tenure, despite claims from the auto industry, autoworkers, industrial states, and economists that the EV consumer tax credit is key to the industry’s future. As such, it opposes all EV consumer tax credits. President Trump’s refusal to extend the EV tax credit for Tesla and GM was a huge blow to U.S. production, as Tesla and GM control more than 60% of the U.S. market.

Now as a 2024 candidate, Trump has gone even further, even as Biden’s legislative policies unlock hundreds of billions of dollars in new private investment annually and create hundreds of thousands of jobs. He also promised to end all support for EVs and clean energy. President Trump then met with the oil industry. Demanding $1 billion in campaign contributions from EV opponentscalling it Big Oil’s “trade.”

All evidence is to the contrary, Trump made false statementsAdvocating Biden’s EV policyThis could lead to a “disaster” for the US economy. At an event in Michigan in March, Trump repeatedly criticized Biden’s electric vehicle incentives as “one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard” and falsely predicted that electric vehicles would become erected.A boon for Chinese and Mexican automakers .

In fact, Biden is introducing a series of tax breaks. Driven more EV private sector investment in the US than any other region in the world— U.S. production has more than tripled in the past three years, with domestic EV sales in 2023 exceeding industry experts’ predictions. And the new tariffs Biden is proposing this week would prevent unfair competition in the U.S. auto sector and prevent what amounts to China’s dumping of cheap cars using subsidized fuel.

Whether it’s trade policy, clean energy technology, or reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions while forcing other countries to act, Biden is now backing Trump in key states that will make or break the election. We are adopting a more robust set of policies to And as usual, President Trump has not responded seriously.

Paul Bledsoe is a faculty lecturer at the Center for Environmental Policy at American University in Washington. He served on the staff of the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, the Department of the Interior, and the White House Climate Change Task Force under former President Bill Clinton.