David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Three Senate Democrats from auto-producing states on Thursday called on the Biden administration to raise import tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles to address national security risks, the latest move by lawmakers to protect the U.S. auto sector.
“Allowing heavily subsidized Chinese vehicles into the American market would jeopardize the American auto industry,” said a previously unpublished letter seen by Reuters from Senators Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Sherrod Brown of Ohio. “The artificially cheap Chinese electric vehicles flooding the US will cost thousands of American jobs and threaten the survival of the US auto industry as a whole.”
Auto industry officials previously told Reuters that Biden was considering raising tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, and the letter is the latest in growing pressure on the White House to take further action to prevent imports of Chinese cars.
The letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai called for “additional action this year to combat the economic and national security threat posed by China’s efforts to penetrate our American market.”
The U.S. Trade Representative and the Commerce Department did not immediately comment.
In recent days, two Republican senators have proposed legislation aimed at increasing tariffs on Chinese-made vehicles, even though relatively few Chinese vehicles are imported into the United States.
“China’s policies could flood our market with their vehicles, posing a threat to our national security,” President Joe Biden said in a statement last week. “I won’t let that happen on my watch.”
The Chinese Embassy in Washington rejected calls for higher tariffs, saying China’s auto exports “reflect the high-quality development and strong innovation of China’s manufacturing industry.”
Last week, the Commerce Department said it was launching an investigation into whether imports of Chinese cars pose a national security risk and could face restrictions due to concerns about connected car technology. The White House has not disclosed details of any specific national security incidents involving Chinese vehicles at this time, but says they could be “used in ways that threaten national security.”
The senators called on the Commerce Department to “focus its investigation on the national security threat posed by potential imports of Chinese highly connected vehicles and high-risk Chinese-controlled connected and autonomous technologies.”
In November, a bipartisan group of lawmakers called on U.S. Trade Representative Tai to raise tariffs on Chinese cars.
Tai said in January that the Biden administration was closely reviewing China’s “non-market policies and practices in the auto industry” and reviewing current tariff levels.