The Biden administration is sharply increasing tariffs on imports from China including electric vehicles, batteries and semiconductors in an effort to protect US jobs ahead of the election in November. The White House said the action was “carefully targeted at strategic sectors” which also included aluminium and steel, critical minerals, solar cells, port cranes and medical products. The tariffs would apply to $18bn worth of Chinese products, it said. The US will quadruple the tariff rate on Chinese EVs to 100 per cent this year and roughly triple the rate on imports of steel and aluminium. The rate on Chinese semiconductors will be doubled from 2025. The tariff on solar cells will also be doubled this year to 50 per cent. The decision is likely to escalate tensions with China, which is by far the lowest-cost and biggest supplier of many clean technologies including EVs and their batteries. The move follows a multiyear review of tariffs on $300bn worth of Chinese goods imposed by then-president Donald Trump as part of his trade war with China. US officials said the administration of President Joe Biden had decided to largely keep the other Trump tariffs in place. Lael Brainard, the White House national economic adviser, said the action would “make sure that historic investments in jobs spurred by President Biden’s actions are not undercut by a flood of unfairly underpriced exports from China”. She added: “China’s using the same playbook it has before to power its own growth at the expense of others by continuing to invest despite excess Chinese capacity and flooding global markets with exports that are underpriced due to unfair practices.” Washington will also more than triple tariffs on Chinese lithium-ion EV batteries to 25 per cent this year. It will take a similar action for lithium-ion batteries for non-electric vehicles from 2026 — a move officials said was designed to give US companies more time to develop the technology.

Full report : The US plans to sharply raise tariffs on imports from China, including chips, EVs, and batteries, impacting $18B of products; chip tariffs will double from 2025.