Biden urged to ban China-made electric vehicles from the US

President Joe Biden has been asked to ban imports of Chinese-made electric cars into the United States.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sen. Sherrod Brown wrote, “Chinese electric vehicles pose an existential threat to the U.S. auto industry.”

His comments are the strongest ever by a US lawmaker on the issue, while others have called for high tariffs to prevent Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) from entering the country.

In February, the White House announced that the United States was opening an investigation into whether Chinese cars posed a national security risk.

“We cannot allow China to impose its government-backed cheating on the American auto industry,” Senator Brown said in a video on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

Sen. Brown, a Democrat from the auto-producing state of Ohio, is seeking a fourth term in the November election.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the BBC.

In February, President Biden said China’s policies “could flood our market with its vehicles, posing risks to our national security” and that he “would not allow that to happen on my watch.”

Washington could impose restrictions over concerns that technology in Chinese-made cars could “collect large amounts of sensitive data about their drivers and passengers,” the White House said.

It warns that internet-connected cars “regularly use their cameras and sensors to record detailed information about U.S. infrastructure, interact directly with critical infrastructure, and can be controlled or disabled remotely.”

China is the world’s largest producer of cars and rivals Japan to become the largest exporter of vehicles.

This week, during a trip to China, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Beijing that Washington would not allow a repeat of the “China shock” of the early 2000s, when Chinese imports flocked to China. America.

In response, Chinese Vice Minister of Finance Liao Min expressed “serious concern” over US restrictions on trade and investment.

Liao said China’s competitive advantages are due to its “large-scale market, comprehensive industrial system and abundant human resources.”

Also Thursday, America’s largest airlines asked the Biden administration to suspend approval of new flights between the United States and China.

In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, they said China’s “damaging anticompetitive policies” put U.S. carriers at a disadvantage.

“If the growth of the Chinese aviation market continues unchecked and without concern for equal market access, flights will continue to be farmed out to Chinese carriers to the detriment of American workers and businesses.”

The world’s two largest economies have been locked in a trade war since 2018, when the then Trump administration imposed tariffs on more than $360 billion (£287 billion) of Chinese goods.

Beijing retaliated by imposing tariffs on more than $110 billion in American goods.

President Joe Biden has largely kept these tariffs in place.

Last year, the value of goods the United States purchased from China fell by just over 20 percent, to $427 billion. At the same time, U.S. exports to China fell 4% to just under $148 billion.