THE Biden administration is watching for any attempts by Chinese companies to export cars from Mexico into the US, and considering ways to block them if they seek to circumvent tariffs targeting electric vehicles (EVs) made in China, his top trade negotiator said.
The government is monitoring Chinese moves in Mexico and on alert for any sign new factories there could be used to gain access to the American car market, US Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai said on Tuesday (May 14).
Her comments come the same day the White House quadrupled tariffs on EVs imported from China, a move designed to protect a strategic growth sector for US automakers.
“We are all paying attention to the fact that there are Chinese industries, state owned-companies, that are buying up land, establishing facilities” in third countries “and looking for other ways of accessing the US market”, Tai said on Tuesday in a Bloomberg Television interview at the White House. Chinese companies have been buying up land south of the border.
The interview followed earlier comments from Tai during a press briefing that Chinese expansion in Mexico is a “serious concern” for USTR and that the agency is “looking at all of our tools to see if we can address the problem”.
BYD, the leader in EVs in China, has been considering building an EV plant in Mexico, Bloomberg News reported earlier this year. On Tuesday, as the company debuted its first truck in Mexico, its Americas chief said that BYD is negotiating with three Mexican states and will have a final location for the plant confirmed by the end of the year. BLOOMBERG
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