Instead of going after the auto industry, Biden should protect US workers from China
Buyers just say no to electric vehicles
And dealers ask Biden where they're supposed to put the glut.
Last year, President Biden announced sweeping new mandates on the American auto industry to force a transition to electric vehicles. Under these radical, Green New Deal rules, as many as two-thirds of all cars and trucks sold in the U.S. market by 2032 would have to be EVs.
These rules were so terrible for consumers – and met with such fierce resistance by American workers – that his administration is already second-guessing them.
Biden has the wrong target. And his commitment to climate radicalism threatens to decimate an industry that has been the foundation of the American middle class for a century.
President Biden speaks during the United Auto Workers conference at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 24, 2024. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Rather than strangle our auto sector with regulations, he should focus instead on protecting them from Chinese automakers – the very ones that are dumping vehicles on the global market, and setting their sights on the United States.
BIDEN VETOES BIPARTISAN BILL PROTECTING US EV INDUSTRY FROM CHINA
Our auto industry employs over four million Americans. These companies and workers have powered American manufacturing for decades. But EVs from China pose an existential threat to this critical manufacturing base, which supports production jobs from Michigan to Missouri.
China has emerged as a dominant automaker in recent years, surpassing Japan as the world’s largest auto exporter in 2023. China’s dominance is not by accident. The Chinese Communist Party has deployed hundreds of billions of industrial subsidies, stolen intellectual property, and imposed forced technology transfers to get ahead.
It’s worked: China now holds a commanding share of the global market for autos, especially EVs and their component parts.
AMERICA SHOULD BAN CHINESE EVS
That’s why Biden has it entirely backwards. His EV mandates threaten to undermine U.S. automakers and make the industry even more dependent on components from China. That’s an outcome American workers cannot afford.
We’ve seen this movie before. Back in 2000, Congress voted to give China Most Favored Nation status and admit it to the World Trade Organization. That decision cost our country nearly 4 million good jobs from trade deficits. Cheap Chinese imports gutted our manufacturing base. Factories shuttered and whole towns withered away. It started with cheap consumer goods, but now China is trying to dominate high-value advanced goods, too. The ones that we still make in America.
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We can’t let this happen. Not again.
President Donald Trump was the first to take action. He imposed a 25% tariff on auto imports from China in 2018. But since then, China’s auto industry has grown even bigger. And we know China has been looking to build factories in Mexico to avoid these tariffs altogether. This means China is actively looking for a loophole in our trade laws. Congress has got to do more.
That’s why I am introducing tough, new legislation to stop the avalanche of Chinese EVs. My bill would impose a new 100% tariff on all vehicles from China, increasing the total tariff on these cars to 125%.
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It would also close this "Mexico loophole" by establishing a new rule of origin to block Chinese automakers from circumventing tariffs by building their cars in third countries. This will go a long way to stopping the flood of EVs in the U.S. market before it starts.
If China can cheat to get ahead, we have every right to impose trade restrictions to protect our workers and allow our auto companies to compete on a level playing field.
The need is urgent. We have to act before China’s move into Mexico causes a fresh wave of job losses in our auto sector. How can we stand aside as our greatest adversary takes direct aim at our autoworkers?
The solution is simple. If he really wants to protect American workers, Joe Biden must immediately hike tariffs on Chinese autos – rather than doubling down on Green New Deal mandates.
Biden’s policies are making China rich and America poor. It’s time to change the equation.
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Republican Josh Hawley represents Missouri in the United States Senate and is the author of Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs.
