Biden gets tough with China on trade

US PRESIDENT Joe Biden announced on Tuesday (May 14) new tariffs on US$18 billion of Chinese imports – including electric vehicles, solar cells, semiconductors, advanced batteries, critical minerals, cranes and medical products – and other sectors that the US regards as strategic to its national security, and which he argues are unfairly subsidised by Beijing.

The new tariff rates – which range from 100 per cent on EVs to 50 per cent for solar components, to 25 per cent for all other sectors – will take effect over the next two years.

President Biden also officially endorsed maintaining tariffs on more than US$300 billion worth of Chinese goods that were put in place by his predecessor Donald Trump – taxes that candidate Biden had criticised during the 2020 race to the White House.