On the 14th local time, the White House announced that the United States announced that on the basis of the original 301 tariffs on China, it would impose new tariffs on a series of goods imported from China, such as steel, aluminum, semiconductors, electric vehicles, batteries, critical minerals, solar cells, ships, shore cranes and medical products, affecting the trade volume of about 18 billion US dollars.
The main reason why the United States has imposed tariffs on China's foreign trade products is that China's foreign trade has changed, and in terms of export structure, China's export products have undergone many changes in the past decade.
In 2010, labor-intensive products accounted for more than 70% of exports, and more than 70% were labor-intensive textiles, clothing, bags, toys and light industrial products at that time, and by 2023, more than 90% of high value-added products will be high-value-added products, and 90% of the products will be mechanical and electrical products and electronic products.
Among them, the proportion of processing trade has dropped from 50% to less than 20%, while China's own industrial chain clusters account for 70% of the goods, whether it is labor-intensive products or processing trade, its main profits are earned by Western countries. Now, China's high-end manufacturing industry is getting better and better, and the profits that Europe and the United States can make are getting better and better.
One of the most striking is China's new energy vehicles, which have risen from the current 25% to 100%, but in fact, this new tax rate is more symbolic than practical, because China's new energy vehicles have basically not entered the US market, and the number of electric vehicles exported by China to the United States in the first quarter of 2024 is less than 2,000, while the United States will sell about 1.44 million electric vehicles in 2023.
The United States is sending a signal to China that the United States will do whatever it takes to hinder, suppress and sanction the development of China's new energy automobile industry, because the output value of the automobile industry is even much higher than that of the semiconductor industry, the Japanese automobile industry has created 6 million high-paying jobs for Japan, and the entire automobile industry chain accounts for more than 40% of Japan's GDP, while the proportion of the American automobile industry in the country's GDP has reached the level of 3%-4%, you must know that the manufacturing industry accounts for less than 20% of the GDP of the United States.
The upstream and downstream industrial chains of China's new energy vehicle industry have basically achieved localization, and Europe and the United States can obtain very little profits, and with the expansion of China's new energy vehicle industry, it will also squeeze the market of the European and American automobile industry, which is why the United States will vigorously suppress China's new energy vehicle industry.
In addition, the United States also hopes to guide and influence other countries to take similar confrontational actions through such a move to curb the development of China's new energy vehicle industry.
Therefore, to sum up, the "theory of overcapacity" put forward by the US policy against the mainland is actually an attempt to suppress and restrict China's advanced industries under the banner of "overcapacity" and vigorously engage in trade protectionism in the name of "fair competition."
Before the specific tariff measures against China were released, according to a report released by the Observer Network citing the US media Bloomberg, on the 13th local time, US Treasury Secretary Yellen revealed in an exclusive interview with the media that the United States has no intention of decoupling the economy from China, but the United States must ensure that the competitive environment is fair. Yellen said the U.S. government is "working to stabilize" the U.S.-China economic relationship. "We don't want to be economically separated from China, but we do think the playing field should be more level." Yellen also slandered that China is engaging in unfair practices such as massive subsidies. At the same time, Yellen also said that she "is not happy to see a strong response from China, but this possibility has always existed."
Yellen being interviewed
Yellen's remarks are almost blatant and say that the United States is reasonable to impose tariffs on China, because China has unfair competition, so China should not retaliate against the United States.
Yellen's remarks couldn't even be listened to by the host of Bloomberg, and directly interrupted Yellen, who directly asked sharply whether the current situation is possible only because the United States was defeated by China in these areas, and Yellen replied that China is taking unfair practices such as large subsidies. And the host directly retorted, is China subsidizing more than the U.S. Chips Act and the "Inflation Reduction Act"? We're subsidizing billions of dollars. This leads to Yellen having to divert the topic.
Even the American presenters understand the truth, will the American officials not be clear?
To this end, Hua Chunying slammed Yellen on the "X" platform and responded:
"To translate [Yellen's]: We [the U.S.] will support U.S. industry with subsidies because it's strategic, but when somebody else does that, it's unfair competition."
Hua Chunying also said that unlike the United States, which avoids competition or even resists competition, China is embracing the future with open hands. At the same time that Yellen invited credit in front of her domestic media, Tesla's Shanghai energy storage gigafactory construction project has been approved for the construction permit, and this is also Truss's first energy storage gigafactory outside the United States.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian also said strongly that the US is seeking an "unfair advantage" by forcibly pursuing a decoupling strategy, building a high wall, generalizing the concept of national security, and excluding competition.
For the United States, although the continued implementation of trade protection strategies can hinder Chinese products from entering the American market in the short term, in the long run, this approach will not only hinder its own development, but also may have a negative impact on the economic interests of American companies, because these increased costs due to tariffs will ultimately be borne by American companies themselves.
However, for the current United States, it is difficult to compete with China in high-end manufacturing, in this case, it can only be through abnormal means to obstruct the development of China's high-end manufacturing products, but China will certainly not stand and be beaten, China's countermeasures will definitely give the United States a heavy blow.