Biden Admin Delays Final Ruling On China Tariffs

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 1^st, but in late July, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced that it decided to delay that start date. Now, this process has been delayed yet again.

According to Reuters, the USTR “continues to develop the final determination regarding proposed modifications of the actions in the Section 301 investigation of the People’s Republic of China’s Acts, Policies, and Practices Related to Technology Transfer, Intellectual Property, and Innovation,” a USTR spokesperson said in a statement. “As USTR continues this work, we expect to make the final determination public in the coming days.”

This news comes on the heels of White House National Security adviser Jake Sullivan’s visit to China, during which he met with senior Chinese officials in Beijing – including President Xi Jinping – and discussed the relationship between the two countries. In recent weeks, the USTR has been working to review 1,100 public comments pertaining to the proposed increase in tariffs, some of which revolve around concerns that the higher tariffs will have a massive financial impact on select American industries.

Those concerns were recently echoed by Ford itself, as the automaker reportedly 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.

We’ll have more on these tariffs soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.