Back in May, amid concerns over unfair competitive practices and potential national security risks, the Biden Administration announced that it would be raising tariffs on imported Chinese EVs and select raw materials by a large margin, a move that has been supported by companies like Ford. Those new tariffs were originally slated to take effect on August 1st, but late last month, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced that it decided to delay that start date.
This decision was made as that agency works to review 1,100 public comments on the matter, some of which revolve around concerns that the higher tariffs will have a massive financial impact on select American industries. Originally, the U.S. planned to increase tariffs on imported Chinese EVs from the current rate of 25 percent all the way up to 100 percent, and lithium-ion batteries would get a boost from 7.5 percent to 25 percent, along with various other materials used in the construction of those batteries.
However, some companies are now calling for a reduction, delay, or total abandonment of these proposed tariff increases, according to Reuters. Ford is among that group, as it has asked the USTR to reduce its proposed tariffs on artificial graphite, which is a key material that the automaker uses in the production of anodes for EV batteries. Ford said it still “almost exclusively” uses Chinese secondary-particle graphite, which means that these increases would have a tremendous impact on its costs.
Now, the USTR must mull this concern, along with comments from other companies impacted by the proposed tariff increases, though it expects to have a final decision in place by the end of August, with new tariffs in place by September. Meanwhile, Europe is mulling its own potential tariffs on Chinese imports, and Canada just announced that it intends to impose a 100 percent tariff on Chinese EVs, as well as a 25 percent tariff for imported steel and aluminum from that same part of the world.
We’ll have more on these tariffs soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.
Comments
No doubt! Many of the toxic materials required to make evs are exclusively mined and refined in China. No other country will allow it, the process it too toxic and expensive. Good thing China has slave labor and no environmental oversight.
This is exactly why we need tariffs. To end the exploitation of people
Tariffs on China is good for everyone. China has shown over and over again their goal is to dump products below cost to force competition out of business and make the world reliant on them.
We need to be building up domestic industries completely independent from China.
Ford is likely going to move more and more production to China and is therefore not in favor of these tariffs.
Are we trying to bring jobs back or not?
Biden proposed these tariffs to gain votes. Truth is the Bidens want to appease China as much as they can without risking alienating their base. That family has made millions off of China with son Hunter the middle man. There will be no jobs brought back as long as the woke democrats are in power. Unfortunately, Ford has adopted those same woke ideas but now realize too high of tariffs will actually hurt them. None of this would have happened if the Biden administration had not imposed their EV demands. Just another example of progressive ideas that can’t be implemented without causing great costs to your average citizen. Vote republican in November.