Recently, the United States has been eyeing China's new energy vehicles again.
On May 14, local time, the United States released the results of the four-year review of the additional 301 tariffs imposed on China, announcing that on the basis of the original 301 tariffs on China, it will further impose tariffs on electric vehicles, lithium batteries, photovoltaic cells and other products imported from China.
Among them, the tariff on electric vehicles imported from China will soar from the current 25% to more than 100%.
Tariffs on energy storage batteries imported from China have also risen to 25% from the current 7.5%, which will be implemented from 2026.
In addition, for photovoltaic cells imported from China, the tariff rate will also soar from 25% to 50%.
As for the US tariffs, this has long been expected by the market, after all, this is the usual trick of the United States.
During Trump's presidency in the United States, they continued to impose tariffs on imports from China for all sorts of spurious reasons.
In 2018, Trump used Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to impose punitive tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese imports.
After Biden took office, the situation has not been significantly reversed, and Biden has continued Trump's policy of continuing to increase tariffs on imports from China.
Sima Zhao's heart is well known to everyone about this practice of the United States.
In order to protect American companies, the United States really does everything.
In particular, the imposition of tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles is absurd.
Although China's electric vehicles are very popular, they currently rank first in the world in terms of production and sales, and a large number of electric vehicles are exported to all parts of the world.
But at present, the number of Chinese electric vehicles exported to the US market is very small and almost negligible.
Taking 2023 data as an example, China's automobile exports will reach 4.91 million units in 2023, making it the world's largest automobile exporter.
However, in 2023, the mainland will export only 12,400 electric vehicles to the US market, with an amount of less than 24 yuan, which is equivalent to less than 0.3% of the mainland's automobile exports to the United States.
This amount is insignificant for the overall automotive industry in the mainland, and there is no threat or challenge to the American automotive industry.
However, it is indeed unbelievable that the United States has gone to great lengths to raise tariffs to prevent Chinese electric vehicles from being exported to the American market.
On the one hand, the United States says that it will not hinder China's development and will not seek to decouple from China's industrial chain, and on the other hand, it will hinder the normal trade exchanges between the two countries.
Of course, China must strongly oppose such a sanctimonious approach by the United States.
On May 14, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the mainland made it clear that China has always opposed violating WTO rules and unilaterally imposing tariffs and will take all necessary measures to protect its legitimate interests.
The Ministry of Commerce of the mainland also responded strongly:
Out of domestic political considerations, the United States has abused the Section 301 tariff review procedure to politicize and instrumentalize economic and trade issues, which is a typical political manipulation. China expresses strong dissatisfaction with this, the WTO has ruled that Section 301 tariffs violate WTO rules, and instead of correcting them, the US side has insisted on going its own way and making mistakes again and again, and China will take resolute measures to defend its rights and interests.
It can be seen that China is very dissatisfied with the United States' violation of WTO rules, and China will also take reciprocal measures to deal with it.
However, in response to China's strong opposition, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen downplayed it, saying that China should not overreact to the U.S. tariffs.
In an interview with Bloomberg on May 13, Yellen said in response to the U.S. tariffs on imports from China that the U.S. government hopes that its trade restrictions on China will not cause China to overreact.
It's really bandit logic, it's like if you do business with a guy and you sell it to him at a lower price, and he actually takes advantage of it, and he beats you up and threatens you that you can't resist.
Even American netizens can't stand this practice, and some American netizens think it's bullying, and in Chinese terms, they can't fight back after being beaten.
But that's the logic of U.S. trade right now.
Under the guidance of the America-first policy, anything that is unfavorable to the United States is against the rules, and everything that the United States cannot take advantage of is unreasonable.
Under this bandit logic, the United States erects trade barriers and unilaterally sanctions other countries and companies. On the one hand, the United States has introduced huge cash subsidies to local companies, and on the other hand, it has called reasonable subsidies from other countries as breaking the rules of the market.
For the United States' own advantageous industries, they export a large amount to other countries is called rational trade, and for other countries' advantageous industries to export a large amount to the United States, they are called overcapacity and dumping.
In international trade, the United States has obvious double standards, and in order to protect its own interests, they disdain to undermine the relevant regulations of the World Trade Organization, and then go their own way.
At present, all countries in the world have no choice but to do anything about this hegemonic move of the United States, and the only thing they can do is to take countermeasures so that the United States can deeply understand the pain of hurting the enemy by 1,000 and inflicting 800 losses on itself.