- author, Mariko Oi
- role, business reporter
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President Joe Biden has called for a ban on imports of Chinese-made electric vehicles into the United States.
“China's electric vehicles pose an existential threat to the U.S. auto industry,” wrote Sen. Sherrod Brown, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.
His comments are the strongest yet by any U.S. lawmaker on the issue, while others have called for steep tariffs to keep Chinese-made electric vehicles out of the country.
The White House announced in February that the United States would launch an investigation into whether Chinese cars pose a national security risk.
“We cannot allow China to bring its government-sponsored fraud into the American auto industry,” Sen. Brown said in a video on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
Sen. Brown is a Democrat from the auto-producing state of Ohio and is seeking a fourth term in the November election.
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The White House did not immediately respond to the BBC's request for comment.
President Biden said in February that China's policies “could flood our markets with cars and pose a risk to our national security,” adding, “I will ensure that doesn't happen on my watch.” ” he said.
The White House said the U.S. government could impose regulations over concerns that Chinese car technology could “collect large amounts of sensitive data about drivers and passengers.”
The report notes that connected vehicles “regularly use cameras and sensors to record detailed information about U.S. infrastructure, interact directly with critical infrastructure, and remotely control or disable it.” “You can,” he warned.
China is the world's largest automobile producer and competes with Japan for the position of largest automobile exporter.
During a visit to China this week, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned the Chinese government that the US would not allow a repeat of the “China Shock'' of the early 2000s, when Chinese imports entered the US.
In response, China's Vice-Minister of Finance Liao Min expressed “serious concerns” about the restrictions the United States is imposing on trade and investment.
Liao said China's competitive advantage is due to its “large market, complete industrial system, and rich human resources.”
Also on Thursday, the nation'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 Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, they said China's “harmful anti-competitive policies” put U.S. airlines at a disadvantage.
“If the growth of China's aviation market continues unchecked and without concerns about equality of market access, flights will continue to be handed over to Chinese airlines at the expense of American workers and businesses. It will be.”
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 $360bn (£287bn) of Chinese goods.
The Chinese government has imposed retaliatory tariffs on more than $110 billion of U.S. goods.
President Joe Biden has largely kept those tariffs in place.
Last year, the value of goods purchased by the United States from China fell by more than 20% to $427 billion. At the same time, U.S. exports to China fell 4% to just under $148 billion.