The UK is considering whether to impose tariffs on Chinese car imports to align itself with the EU and strengthen its case to be included in new legislation designed to protect the European manufacturing sectors including autos and chemicals. It is understood the EU has raised the question of tariffs with the UK as part of the discussions on the upcoming “Made in Europe” legislation, known as the Industrial Accelerator Act. The UK is an outlier in choosing not to put import taxes on Chinese vehicles, even as the US…
Tag: Tariffs
UK car industry faces ‘difficult trade-off’ between Chinese and EU markets
Britain’s car industry is grappling with a “difficult trade-off” between China and Europe, as manufacturers struggle to balance the benefits of both markets ahead of looming trade measures that could restrict UK exports to the EU. The UK is an outlier in choosing not to put import taxes on Chinese vehicles, even as the US has shut them out almost entirely, and the EU imposes duties of up to 45%. EU officials reportedly warned Andy Burnham last month that the UK must put tariffs on cheap Chinese vehicles otherwise Brussels…
Foie gras, live dolphins and toasters: China and US cut reciprocal tariffs on $30bn each of goods
The US and China have released reciprocal lists of goods worth about $30bn each on which they plan to cut tariffs, ranging from consumer electronics and agricultural products to artificial flowers and live dolphins. The announcements are the latest tack away from the intense trade war between the world’s two largest economies that dominated much of last year, though major strategic products are not included and no timeline has yet been given for the reductions. The US list includes 77 categories of Chinese products including bed linen, garden umbrellas, toasters,…
Is the US actually too chicken to take on China for trade?
Since China offered a truce in the trade war last October following its threat to deprive the United States of rare-earth magnets, the Trump administration has been happy to stop escalating. After all, imports from China have been falling, down by 40% in the year to June, compared with the same period in 2024. Best to declare victory and call it a day. But the US hasn’t won this battle – and there’s strong evidence to show it’s too chicken to really try. Last week the White House was forced…
Chinese EV sales surge to new high in Europe putting tariffs under scrutiny
Imports this year now account for 14% of the market amid claims vehicles are being dumped in the EU and UK Chinese electric car sales have risen across Europe to a record high driven by strong demand and low tariffs in the UK and a surge in buyers in Italy. Against a backdrop of claims that Chinese carmakers are “dumping” state-subsidised vehicles in the EU and UK to gain market share, the figures will give impetus to calls for quotas and higher tariffs to protect European manufacturers. Continue reading… The…
President Xi nevers wastes a good crisis. As Iran, Ukraine and Palestine distract the world, he tightens his grip | Simon Tisdall
Imagine what would happen if a British prime minister in London told the Scots they could not have their own parliament, national football team or fly the saltire. Or if the Welsh were told their language and poetry were banned and must no longer be taught in schools. The ensuing uproar would probably destroy the United Kingdom. Yet that’s exactly what Xi Jinping, China’s communist emperor, is telling the roughly 125 million members of the 55 ethnic and religious minorities who together comprise about 9% of the country’s (majority Han…
Democratic lawmakers propose bank funded by China tariffs to boost US manufacturing
Democrats in the US Congress have laid out plans for what they say would be the “boldest” bid to revitalize the country’s industrial heartlands since the second world war – using revenue raised by tariffs on China. A bill introduced this week would create a new bank to strengthen domestic manufacturing, provided with up to $15bn in funds each year. The bill, led by US representatives Ro Khanna, Tom Suozzi and Debbie Dingell, is entitled the Industrial Bank for American Manufacturing Act. “This is one of the boldest industrialization proposals…
UK to halve tariff-free steel imports to counter glut of cheap Chinese metal
The UK government will halve the amount of tariff-free steel imports allowed in an attempt to counter a global oversupply of cheap Chinese metal and bolster its beleaguered local industry. New “safeguards” will be introduced on 1 July and will coincide with similar new limits being introduced by the EU for the same purposes. At the same time tariffs on steel imports above the duty-free quotas will be doubled to 50% of the product’s value. The quotas replace existing pre-Brexit rules that set import levels across the EU. The UK…
What was actually achieved at Trump and Xi’s ‘stalemate summit’ in Beijing?
Donald Trump’s whirlwind trip to Beijing – the first US presidential visit in nearly a decade – wrapped up with much fanfare but little clarity about what was actually achieved. Trump said on Friday he and Xi Jinping, China’s leader, “settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn’t have been able to solve”. But he didn’t provide much detail on what those solutions were. “My guess is that despite all the ceremony and summit theatrics, that at the end of the day, this summit will not be that…
The big questions hanging over the Trump-Xi meeting in China
On 20 February, a White House official confirmed that US president Donald Trump would be travelling to Beijing the following month to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Top of the agenda: the US-China trade war. One week later, Trump approved joint strikes with Israel against Iran, starting a new war in the Middle East. Its ramifications have spread far beyond the region and caused alarm in Beijing. The presidential summit was postponed. Now the highly anticipated meeting between Trump and Xi is expected to take place on 13-15 May…