news

interface news reporter | ma yueran and zhuang jian

five months later, the biden administration's 301 tariff details on china were implemented, significantly increasing import tariffs on chinese products such as electric vehicles, lithium batteries, and solar cells.

among them, the tariff on electric vehicles was increased by 100%, a 50% tariff was imposed on chinese solar cells, and a 25% tariff was imposed on chinese steel, aluminum, electric vehicle batteries and key minerals.

most of the tariffs will take effect on september 27. at the same time, the united states will increase import tariffs on chinese semiconductors by 50%, and this new rate will take effect in january 2025. two new categories of polysilicon and silicon wafers used in solar panels have been added to the semiconductor category.

tariffs on non-automotive lithium batteries, including energy storage, will increase from 7.5% to 25% by 2026. in addition, tariffs on battery components, natural graphite and some key minerals will be gradually increased to 25% between 2024 and 2026.

port cranes were exempted to some extent. the tariff on port cranes will rise to 25%, but the final decision allows the exclusion of chinese cranes ordered before mid-may this year, provided that they are delivered before may 2026. the above statement said that the exemption policy balances the impact that the tariff policy may have on the us economy and its protection from the so-called chinese government-backed cyber intrusion threat to us critical infrastructure.

in february this year, us president biden signed an executive order to invest more than us$20 billion (about rmb 144.6 billion) in port safety construction over the next five years, including manufacturing port cranes in the united states. the purpose of this move is to replace all chinese-made port cranes used in us ports. according to data provided by the white house, nearly 80%, or more than 200 cranes in us ports, are made in china.

in addition, the above-mentioned tariffs also involve some details regarding medical products.

the us government originally planned to impose tariffs on some of the above products starting august 1 this year, but the decision has been postponed twice.

according to the official website of the office of the united states trade representative, the proposed changes announced in may have been basically approved, and after reviewing more than 1,100 comments from the public, several updates have been made to strengthen actions to protect american companies and workers from china's unfair trade practices.

the updates are intended to improve the effectiveness of the tariff actions in achieving the objectives of the investigation, while taking into account additional actions that could be taken and the overall impact of the tariff actions on the u.s. economy.

the office of the united states trade representative said that u.s. economic analysis generally believes that the section 301 tariffs will help reduce u.s. imports of goods from china and increase imports from other sources (including u.s. allies and partners), which may support the diversification and resilience of the u.s. supply chain.

on september 14, the china photovoltaic industry association issued a statement saying that on the one hand, the united states has built a high protectionist wall, adopted multiple trade restrictions, and set up photovoltaic tariff barriers layer by layer; on the other hand, it has passed bills such as the inflation reduction act and the infrastructure investment and jobs act to implement exclusive and discriminatory industrial policies, providing large-scale subsidies to its domestic photovoltaic industry that are suspected of violating multilateral rules, seriously distorting the market-oriented operation of the global photovoltaic industry chain and supply chain, and undermining international cooperation in areas such as the global response to climate change.

he yongqian, spokesperson for the ministry of commerce of china, recently pointed out thatchina has lodged solemn representations to the us on the issue of 301 tariffs on many occasions. the wto has long ruled that the 301 tariffs violate wto rules. the us practice of raising additional tariffs on china is making matters worse.

he yongqian said that the office of the united states trade representative had previously solicited public comments on the results of the tariff review, and the majority of opinions were against imposing additional tariffs or applying for an expansion of tariff exemptions, which shows that the us 301 tariffs on china are unpopular.urge the us to immediately cancel all additional tariffs on china.

according to cnn, trump imposed comprehensive tariffs on about $300 billion of chinese-made products during his tenure. president biden retained these tariffs and decided to increase some tariffs on about $15 billion of chinese imports after the office of the united states trade representative completed a multi-year review earlier this year.

the additional tariffs are consistent with biden's other economic policies, aimed at promoting domestic manufacturing in industries such as clean energy and semiconductor chips in the united states.

but there is opposition to the tariffs in the united states. reuters noted that the final decision largely ignored requests from automakers to reduce tariffs on graphite and key minerals used in the production of electric vehicle batteries.

the industry believes the increase will disrupt supply chains, including for semiconductor-intensive products, and do little to stop china's technology transfer and industry dominance, which has led to excess factory production flooding the global market.

reuters quoted jason oxman, chairman of the information technology industry council, as saying that since their implementation, these tariffs have cumulatively caused $221 billion in losses to american businesses and consumers. with the announcement of the new policy today, the office of the united states trade representative once again relied on blunt and ineffective tariff tools.

CNNtariffs can be politically popular, even though many economists agree they are costly tools that don't always boost domestic industry as promised. they are designed to raise the price of foreign-made goods as a way to protect domestic producers.

the above-mentioned adjustment of the us tariff rate,the focus is on three new export products from china, namely electric vehicles, lithium batteries and solar cells.

according to statistics disclosed on the website of the general administration of customs, the united states has been the largest destination for china's lithium battery exports for four consecutive years from 2020 to 2023. last year, china's lithium battery exports to the united states reached us$13.549 billion (about rmb 97.9 billion), accounting for 20.8% of the total exports.

in the first seven months of this year, china exported lithium batteries worth us$7.389 billion (about rmb 52.4 billion), a year-on-year increase of 2.7%. it is still the largest destination for domestic lithium battery exports, accounting for 22.7%.

lithium batteries include different product types such as power batteries, energy storage batteries and consumer batteries. the above statistics do not disclose the specific classification information of domestic lithium battery exports.

chen shan, an analyst at r&d institute for energy battery market research, said that the above tariff policy is intended to get rid of the dependence on chinese batteries and stimulate the development of the domestic battery and related materials manufacturing industry in the united states. however, due to the lack of mass production experience, it is still difficult for local manufacturers to achieve mass production in the short term.

she also pointed out that the policy may disrupt the supply chain and increase the cost of batteries in the united states. the rise in battery prices in the short term will affect the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the united states.

listed companies such as yiwei lithium energy (300014.sz), guoxuan high-tech (002074.sz), and farasis energy (688567.sh) have all responded to the potential impact of the additional tariffs.

yiwei lithium energy said that it does not currently export power batteries directly to the united states. the company is building a new energy storage battery factory in malaysia, which will help it avoid the impact of the us policy of imposing tariffs on energy storage batteries starting in 2026.

guoxuan high-tech and farasis energy both stated that the current battery exports to the us market are small and will not cause a significant impact. industry leaders catl (300750.sz) and byd (002594.sz) have not yet responded to this.

according tonationalaccording to data from the power battery industry innovation alliance, catl and byd rank first and second among domestic lithium battery export companies.

since the us government has previously passed policies such as the inflation reduction act, the policies encourage the lithium battery industry chain to settle in the country and provide subsidies, but impose restrictions on chinese lithium battery companies.

among domestic companies, only envision power and guoxuan high-tech have established battery factories in the united states or announced factory construction plans.

companies such as catl and eve energy have given up on building wholly-owned factories in the united states and have instead entered the market through technology licensing. the most typical example is the battery factory in michigan, the united states, built by catl in cooperation with ford motor.

in the photovoltaic field, although the us has added new tariffs on upstream polysilicon and silicon wafers, the actual impact on china's industry is relatively small.

china's photovoltaic products for export are mainly modules. the united states has long restricted china's photovoltaic industry, and has previously set up trade barriers to china's photovoltaic trade through "double anti-dumping" and 201 tariffs. chinese companies previously set up factories in southeast asia to "bypass" exports, but "double anti-dumping" has made a comeback, and more and more companies are beginning to seek to set up factories in the united states to reduce tariff risks.

data from the china photovoltaic industry association shows that the united states has not appeared in the top ten export markets for china's photovoltaic products in the past two years.

due to the lack of a complete photovoltaic industry chain and sufficient production capacity, the united states is highly dependent on imports of photovoltaic products. currently, most solar products in the united states are imported from southeast asia. the photovoltaic modules exported from southeast asia to the united states account for about 80% of the country's total imports. the control of import tariffs on photovoltaic products will lead to an increase in the cost of photovoltaic projects in the united states, which may affect its photovoltaic construction.

the results of the southeast asian anti-dumping and countervailing investigations may have a greater impact on china's exports of photovoltaic products to the united states.

in may this year, the united states decided to restart the anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigation on photovoltaic products from four southeast asian countries. the u.s. department of commerce announced that it would launch anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations on crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells (whether assembled into modules or not) imported from cambodia, malaysia, thailand and vietnam. the anti-dumping and countervailing duty rates have not yet been implemented.

zhong baoshen, chairman of longi green energy (601012.sh), pointed out at a previous earnings conference that in the past, due to various trade policy restrictions, direct exports from china to the united states were almost zero. exports from southeast asia to the united states will also see higher and higher tax rates, and the actual tax rates will have to wait until september to october.

in the past two years, as the call for energy transformation has grown, the united states has gradually realized the importance of establishing a local clean energy industry chain. in 2022, us president biden signed the inflation reduction act, which plans to invest $430 billion in climate, clean energy and healthcare, and is committed to creating approximately $740 billion in fiscal revenue in the next 10 years.