Trump, accepting Republican presidential nomination, vows high tariffs on China-made cars
Donald Trump threatened to raise tariffs on car imports, including from China, in his pledge to boost the auto manufacturing sector in the United States as he accepted the Republican Party's presidential nomination on Thursday night.
"Right now as we speak, large factories are being built across the border in Mexico ... They are being built by China to make cars and to sell them into our country [with] no tax or anything," he said as the crowd jeered.
"We're going to bring back car manufacturing and we're going to bring it back fast.
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"They are building some of the largest auto plants anywhere in the world," he said, calling instead for factories to be built in the US and for Americans to "man those plants".
"And if they don't agree with us we will put a tariff of approximately 100 to 200 per cent on each car, and they will be unsellable in the US."
He told the convention: "We will not let countries come in, take our jobs, and plunder our nation. The way they will sell their product in America is to build it in America, and only in America."
Trump and US President Joe Biden during their debate at CNN studios in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 27. Photo: AFP alt=Trump and US President Joe Biden during their debate at CNN studios in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 27. Photo: AFP>
The former president's comments came just four months before the US general election, with expectations that candidates from both parties will harden their stance towards China.
Trump was US president from 2017 to 2021, defeated in his re-election bid in 2020 by Biden. This year's race pits the two rivals against each other again, although there are growing divisions in the Democratic Party over whether President Joe Biden will be its nominee.
Trump - who had the Republican nomination all but locked up after primary rivals, including his former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, dropped out of the running earlier this year - took a hard line against China on the economic front during his first term.
His actions represented a fundamental shift from decades of close bilateral integration that increased when Beijing acceded to the World Trade Organization in 2001, a move that helped make China the world's second-largest economy.
The trade war that Trump launched against Beijing in July 2018, in the form of tariffs of up to 25 per cent on more than US$500 billion worth of imports from China, have remained in place throughout Biden's term.
As US inflation gathered pace in 2022 - a consequence, economists say, of the pandemic - it became a talking point for Republicans accusing Biden of causing the problem.
The president resisted pressure from the American business community to remove the tariffs, even adding more in May, as he accused Beijing of sticking with unfair trade practices that had prompted Trump to start the trade war.
Economists have questioned the trade war's efficacy, noting the degree to which imports of Chinese goods have been re-routed through Vietnam and other countries. America's trade deficit with China has shown only a slight decrease, to US$279 billion from US$300 billion, between 2019 and 2023.
Tax Foundation, an independent think tank in Washington, estimated last month that tariffs introduced by Trump and Biden "will reduce long-run GDP by 0.2 per cent ... and employment by 142,000 full-time equivalent jobs".
The foundation estimated that US importers have paid a cumulative US$79 billion owing to the punitive levies.
Trump has vowed to raise tariffs across the board on all imports if elected, but has not been consistent about what he would do about those on Chinese imports.
The former president previously vowed to impose a 60 per cent tariff on Chinese goods, but did not repeat this pledge during his debate with President Biden last month.
He walked back the percentage during a recent interview with Bloomberg, while he has not retracted his commitment to impose a 10 per cent tariff on all imports into the US.
Trump's threat on car tariffs followed an earlier move by the Biden administration to quadruple duties on Chinese-made electric vehicles in May, even when China only accounted for about 2 per cent of the EV imports to the US.
As Republicans move towards the election unified under Trump, it is becoming increasingly uncertain that he will face Biden, whom the White House said on Wednesday had tested positive for Covid-19.
Biden was already under siege by many Democrats asking him to step down as a candidate for re-election following a disastrous performance in his debate with Trump on June 27.
Most recently, Democratic congressman Adam Schiff of California, who is expected to win his race for a US Senate seat, called for Biden on Wednesday to "pass the torch".
Schiff is a close ally of former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who wields significant influence in the party.
Biden arriving at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Wednesday, en route to his home in Rehoboth Beach to self-isolate after testing positive for Covid-19. Photo: AP alt=Biden arriving at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Wednesday, en route to his home in Rehoboth Beach to self-isolate after testing positive for Covid-19. Photo: AP>
Citing people familiar with the situation, CNN reported on Thursday that Pelosi has privately told Biden recently that polling shows that he cannot defeat Trump.
Similar reports accumulated throughout the day.
By evening in Washington, Reuters reported that Biden was taking calls to step aside as the Democratic presidential candidate seriously and that multiple Democratic officials thought an exit was a matter of time.
"His soul searching is actually happening, I know that for a fact," Reuters cited one source as saying. "He's thinking about this very seriously."
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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