Senators Lobby President Trump To Stop Chinese Cars Being Built In America
Three U.S. senators, Tammy Baldwin, Elissa Slotkin, and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, have asked President Donald Trump to bar Chinese automakers like BYD and Geely from building vehicles in the United States. The Senators also asked that the President bar Chinese-built cars from Mexico or Canada from entering the American market.
The ban would be another massive hurdle for Chinese automakers looking to expand to the American market. Currently, Chinese brands already face a 100 percent tariff in the US. "We must be clear-eyed that inviting China’s automakers to set up shop in the United States would confer an insurmountable economic advantage impossible for American automakers to overcome, and it would trigger a national security crisis that could never be reversed," the lawmakers said in a letter to President Trump, per Reuters.
President Trump has previously been receptive to the idea of Chinese cars on American roads. Trump said that he is open to Chinese automakers having US factories in January. "If they want to come in and build a plant and hire you and hire your friends and your neighbors, that’s great, I love that,” said to the Detroit Economic Club. The letter from the Senators believes that while Chinese manufacturing will temporarily shore up jobs, a net loss in jobs will not make up for the "lasting job loss" that will occur if Chinese automakers can sell cars in the US.
Volvo
Already, some Chinese automakers have found a way in. Geely, a Chinese automaker, already sells Volvo and Polestar vehicles here, though both circumvent being considered Chinese based on their respective assembly locations and the pair's previous ownership. The White House told Reuters that "while the administration is always working to secure more investment into America’s industrial resurgence, any notion that we would ever compromise our national security to do so is baseless and false."
While some parties in Washington have called Chinese cars a security risk, the Chinese Embassy said in February that the United States has "engaged in trade protectionism and set up obstacles including discriminatory subsidy policies to obstruct access to the U.S. market by Chinese-made cars."