The United States announced tariffs on $18 billion of Chinese goods, and within 24 hours, China responded that it would take resolute measures, and the U.S. Treasury Secretary shouted to China in advance, saying that the United States has no intention of "decoupling" from China and does not want China to make a major response.
On May 14, the U.S. side released the results of the review of the "Section 301" tariffs imposed on China, announcing that it would further increase tariffs on Chinese goods imported from China with a total value of about US$18 billion, such as electric vehicles, photovoltaic cells, and critical minerals.
China and the United States have close trade ties
In fact, on this matter, U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen has released the wind in advance, local time on the 13th, in response to the Biden administration's imminent imposition of new tariffs on Chinese products exported to the United States, said that the United States hopes not to see a major response from China, but also said that "this is always possible", and Yellen also said that the United States has no intention of "decoupling" from China in the economic field.
In short, at a time when the United States insisted on imposing new tariffs on new energy vehicles and other products exported from China to the United States, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen judged that China may take more significant countermeasures against this protectionist policy of the United States, so she expressed her position in advance and hoped that China would not respond reciprocally.
Previously, the mainland's foreign affairs department had repeatedly stated that if the United States hoped that China would "not fight back and scold back," it would be impossible. Yellen's current statement is tantamount to publicly telling China that I am going to impose tariffs on you, but you are not allowed to fight back.
The question is, why does the US think China should not respond? Now it is the United States itself that is taking the initiative to create trade problems, on the one hand, it wants to impose tariffs three or four times on China's electric vehicles, and on the other hand, it asks China not to fight back.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen
Less than 24 hours after the US announced the tariffs on China, the Ministry of Commerce of the mainland issued a tough response, demanding that the US immediately correct its wrong practices and cancel the tariffs imposed on Chinese goods, and stressed that China will take resolute measures to defend its rights and interests.
In response to China's warning, the US media began to make up for it, and Bloomberg reported that the US move to impose tariffs on Chinese products exported to the United States this time seems to be violent, but in fact it is only "symbolic". Because China's electric vehicle industry, which is included in the scope of the Biden administration's new tariffs, is not too dependent on the US market.
Objectively speaking, Dr. Peng's assertion has a certain basis in reality. Although China's exports of electric vehicles have increased significantly in the past two years, the United States has not been a major export market for Chinese electric vehicles, and even underdeveloped countries such as Brazil have purchased more Chinese electric vehicles than the United States.
On the one hand, this is because the United States itself has adopted a policy of crowding out China's electric vehicles, and on the other hand, it is also because the popularity of electric vehicles in the United States has been in a relatively lagging state.
U.S. Energy Extraction
In layman's terms, as one of the world's most important oil exporters, the United States' traditional energy capital has a great influence and has been restricting or preventing the popularization of new energy vehicles, which has led to the United States' own electric vehicle industry has not developed, and the imported Chinese electric vehicles are naturally even less.
The Biden administration's tariffs on Chinese products exported to the United States this time cover electric vehicles, solar cells and other emerging industries, but the main target of the tariffs is China's electric vehicle industry.
According to previous foreign media reports, the Biden administration's tariffs on key strategic industries such as electric vehicles this time, including three to four times the tariffs imposed on Chinese electric vehicles, were directly raised from 27.5% to 102.5%. For products from other industries, the levy will be doubled to two, which is relatively relaxed.
Bloomberg judged on this ground that the Biden administration's tariffs on Chinese products exported to the United States are "symbolic" and do not really want to "decouple" from China, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen also said that the U.S. action is targeted, which means that this move does not mean that the Biden administration wants to continue the policy of fighting a full-scale "trade war" with China during the Trump administration.
U.S. President Joe Biden
In other words, U.S. politicians and even the media almost said that the Biden administration was trying to win votes for the sake of the election, symbolically expressing its toughness on China.
On the surface, there is some truth to this statement. But in reality, from China's point of view, it's not like that at all.
On the one hand, as the de facto "leader" of the developed capitalist countries in the West, the United States has imposed tariffs on China's exports from electric vehicles and other related emerging industries.
To put it in layman's terms, when the United States adopts such protectionist measures, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, and other Western economies are likely to learn from it.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
The European Union, in particular, has been deeply influenced by the United States, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has already advocated launching a so-called "countervailing investigation" on Chinese exports of electric vehicles to the EU.
In this context, if the United States does not impose tariffs on China's electric vehicles, then the rational faction in the EU will have more motivation and opportunity to oppose von der Leyen's "pro-American faction" in order to show loyalty to the United States and insist on sabotaging normal trade between China and the EU.
On the contrary, when the United States imposes huge tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, then some pro-American politicians in the European Union will have more reasons to push for tariffs on Chinese exports to the European Union, and other economies such as Japan and South Korea are similar.
From this point of view, although China does not export many electric vehicles to the United States, only from the perspective of Sino-US trade, the United States will not have much impact on China's electric vehicles, but he will form a very bad demonstration effect in the world, and then affect the overall development of China's new energy vehicle industry.
China's EV exports
Second, the Biden administration has recently sought to ease Sino-US relations, at least in words, but has not made sincere moves in practice.
This inevitably makes people suspect that the so-called easing of Sino-US relations is still only rhetorical, and the purpose is only to stabilize China.
In layman's terms, it is to change the comprehensive, one-off "trade war" against China during the Trump administration into a little bit, sausage-slicing temptation, regardless of whether the US side is making such calculations or not, China will not allow it.
U.S.-China relations
Finally, from China's point of view, no matter whether the Biden administration's tariffs on China's electric vehicles are symbolic or have other intentions, we cannot take it lightly, China's development rights and interests cannot be harmed, and if the United States insists on going its own way, then China will not hesitate to take necessary measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of its own enterprises.