On May 14, the White House announced a powerful news.
That is, the United States released the results of the four-year review of the additional Section 301 tariffs on China, and the White House announced that on the basis of the original Section 301 tariffs on China, it will further increase the tariffs on electric vehicles, lithium batteries, photovoltaic cells, semiconductors, and port cranes imported from China.
Among them, the tariff rate on electric vehicles in China will increase from 25% to 100%, and the tariff rate on steel and aluminum products will also increase from 7.5% to 25%.
By the end of 2025, tariffs on semiconductors will also be increased from 25% to 50%, and so on.
Regarding the announcement of the United States to impose tariffs on China, U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen also talked about such a point of view in an interview with the media on May 13, that is, I hope that China will not have a major reaction.
In other words, on the one hand, the United States has drawn a knife against China, and on the other hand, it also hopes that China will not have a strong reaction and will not retaliate against the United States!
What is China's attitude towards the announcement by the White House?
At the same time, China strongly disagrees with the US for abusing the Section 301 tariff review procedure and further raising the Section 301 tariffs imposed on Chinese products, thus complicating and instrumentalizing economic and trade issues.
At the same time, the Chinese side also stressed that the US raising the Section 301 tariffs violates President Biden's commitment to "not seek to suppress and contain China's development" and "not seek to decouple and break the chain with China", nor is it in line with the spirit of the consensus reached by the two heads of state, which will seriously affect the atmosphere of bilateral cooperation.
The US should immediately correct its wrong approach and lift the additional tariffs imposed on China. China will take resolute measures to defend its rights and interests.
As for why U.S. President Biden played the "tariff card" at this time, some analysts have also made an accurate analysis, and 2024 is the U.S. presidential election year.
And the current situation, for Biden, is not optimistic.
Biden will have to be tougher in order to win more votes, especially in swing states.
In particular, in recent years, the sudden emergence of electric vehicles in China has caused concern in Washington about the clean energy sector.
So Biden played the "tariff card" and used tariffs to prevent Chinese electric vehicle brands from entering the U.S. market.
It is of great significance for Biden to win votes.
Therefore, China's point out that US President Joe Biden is instrumentalizing and politicizing the "tariffs" is indeed hitting the nail on the head.
But one thing Biden should also be clear about is that the penetration rate of Chinese electric vehicle brands in the United States is extremely low.
U.S. President Joe Biden increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle brands to 100% at this time, and the first to be hit was Tesla, an American car company.
After all, Tesla has a gigafactory in Shanghai, China, and now the United States has announced tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, which will only affect Tesla's entry into the American market.
Biden's knife is a bit of a lifting stone to shoot himself in the foot.