China retaliates against the US and EU with anti-dumping probe

N

Nighthawk

Tit-for-tat investigation into thermoplastics follows a pattern established during the Trump presidency


China has signalled it will retaliate against trade barriers introduced by the US and the EU as it launched an anti-dumping probe into chemical imports. The Ministry of Commerce announced on Sunday that it is probing imports of polyoxymethylene copolymer, a thermoplastic widely used in the consumer electronics and automotive industries, from the EU, the US, Japan and Taiwan.

Beijing’s move suggests it will take tit-for-tat action against foreign trade barriers, but the narrow investigation into chemicals also highlights the limits on its ability to respond, given the huge trade surpluses it runs with the US and EU. Its action came after the Biden administration this week unveiled a raft of tariffs on Chinese goods including clean energy technologies and computer chips. The most striking was a quadrupling of tariffs on electric vehicles to 100 per cent, aimed at preventing players such as BYD and Nio from gaining a foothold in the US automotive industry.

The White House said $18bn of goods in “strategic sectors” would be affected by the tariff rises, claiming they would give US companies time to catch up with Chinese rivals in clean energy technology.

https://www.ft.com/content/2f2b7a43-620f-47d2-ba9e-a2742b8e5902

Happy trade war Sunday! :sneaky:
 
This was expected. China is dumping US debt and buying gold, a sign of readiness for conflict, hopefully economic only, not military over Taiwan.
Here's the irony to me: China is a planned economy. As such, the central government determines what areas of the economy need its support or lose incentives. Nonetheless, Chinese labor cost is low and plentiful and the people are culturally hard working and competitive. In auto manufacturing for example, the price of their vehicles are low at home and, adjusted for shipping costs, similarly low at export.
Europe and the US are imposing tariffs on a slew of products, including EVs, on account of Chinese government support considered anticompetitive. What they admit to is they cannot compete with Chinese prices in the low to mid range products and soon in higher end products.
Isn't the US and European manufacturers getting gov support, indirect and direct? Of course they do and the only valid argument is, to what extent? % here, % there... Peanuts.
What western nations are pushing for is Chinese manufacturers to increase their margins to make western EVs competitive, which means making Chinese manufacturers even wealthier and able to push their product development prowess deeper and faster. In effect, we lose either way.
Perhaps it is time to finally admit that the economic globalism pushed by the US, and Republicans in particular, post WWII worked as long as the US led, but we've lost our edge, competition from Europe and Asia came in fast and faster and we have no solution but to accuse one another for what we've become.
American conservatism from the Democrats and Republicans, meaning fear of change, fear of progress is everywhere to be seen. Climate change, EVs, science, education... We're witnessing a dramatic pullback to values we'd long evolved from, instead blaming everyone else for our inabilities.
 
It's not like American auto industry is going to be saved just because some Chinese EV's got tariff'ed. And the Chinese EV industry is not going to die just because they got tariff'ed in America. But both countries' leaders want to show that they are doing something. So there you go.
 
tic for tac, china will levy at least 25% tariff on us ice vehicles above 4 liter engine, including china-made vehicles from us auto makers.
 
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