The United States has taken the lead in imposing tariffs on China, why are the American people the most injured? Is it as simple as the EU following as a thug just to maintain Western hegemony? India and Indonesia are also going to take action, is this an iron heart to fight a trade war with China? Mexico's behavior is even more excessive, openly grabbing China's lithium mines, sounding a wake-up call for China's foreign investment!
The full imposition of tariffs on China is a bad start for the United States
On May 14 this year, the United States announced a measure to impose tariffs on $18 billion of imports from China, including tariffs on electric vehicles from 25% to 100%, lithium-ion batteries from 7.5% to 2.5%, and solar cells from 25% to 50%.
Although the U.S. tax hike is staggering, the response to the tax hike in the past month or so has not had much direct impact on Chinese companies, because the U.S. itself rarely imports Chinese-made electric vehicles.
According to data released by the China Passenger Car Association, in the first quarter of this year, only Geely Automobile exported 2,217 vehicles to the United States, such a small market size is simply not enough to curb the development of Chinese enterprises.
However, in the more than a month since the tax hike was implemented, this measure has had a very negative impact.
After the United States made this bad start, American companies other than the new energy industry began to be ready to raise taxes, and the European Union gradually became a thug in the process of following up on US policies.
According to a report by Bloomberg on June 29 local time, Kraboca and Textron, headquartered near Augusta, Georgia, USA, have requested the Biden administration to raise taxes, requiring the United States to impose 100% tariffs on Chinese-made golf carts and other low-speed personal cars, making them comparable to the tariffs imposed by the United States on ordinary Chinese electric vehicles.
According to an email statement sent by Mark Wagner, president of the company on June 28 local time.
The company believes that the number of golf carts imported from China by the United States is growing rapidly, and that the reason for this is that the Chinese government has provided a large number of subsidies to related companies to give them a price advantage, and the United States must take action to do so.
This is obviously the diffusion effect of the Biden administration's tariff policy, when there is a beginning of electric vehicles, other American companies, after seeing the pressure of domestic electric vehicles in the domestic market to decline, will also want to push the government to promote similar policies in their own industries to strengthen their own interests.
And because the so-called huge subsidies bring about price advantages and affect US national security, and so on, they are themselves "pocket crimes" concocted by the United States. These companies can easily use these excuses to get the U.S. government to take more extensive tax hikes.
In the long run, manufacturing products from China are likely to be included in the list of tax hikes by the United States, and these increased tax rates will be passed on to the American people.
Even if the United States does stop importing Chinese products, the hollowing out of its own manufacturing industry will lead to the destruction of the balance between supply and demand, and the price of the goods will rise sharply. In the end, the American capitalists will make a lot of money, and the American people will pay for it.
The European Union has become a thug of the United States, and Indonesia and India have also attacked China
The issue is more complicated on the EU side, with the BBC reporting that the two sides held a round of negotiations in late June on temporary tax hikes for electric vehicles.
Although friction remains, both sides have agreed to further consultations, and the next round of contacts will take place in early July.
Unlike the United States, one of the important markets for China's electric vehicles in the European Union, the European Union has made such difficulties that it has obviously become a thug of the United States, and is using electric vehicles as an excuse to put pressure on China, hoping to force China to make concessions to the United States and Europe.
In this way, the United States and Europe and other Western countries have formed a joint monster alliance with China, trying to build tariff barriers to hinder China's export of new energy products, so as to maintain the West's technological leadership and global hegemony.
At present, this behavior has begun to have the impact of globalization, and some countries have begun to choose to follow up on tariff barriers after seeing the risks posed by the trade war.
On June 28, Indonesian Trade Minister Hassan announced that Indonesia will impose 100% to 200% safeguard tariffs on imports from footwear to ceramics to seek to protect domestic industries, and China, the main importer of Indonesian products.
The reason for Indonesia's tax hike is that there is a trade war between China and the United States, and if the West significantly increases tariffs on China's general manufacturing goods, it will lead to a large number of products that should be exported to the West to other markets, and once Indonesia's domestic industries are hit by foreign products, small and micro enterprises may face a development crisis.
In addition, Hassan also said that the tariff policy announced this time may also affect the import of footwear, clothing, textiles, cosmetics and ceramics, which are China's main exports of general manufacturing products, after the relevant regulations are issued and take effect.
Many people see the incident as evidence that Indonesia has begun to follow the West's anti-China exclusion.
But in fact, Indonesia is indeed considering based on its own interests, which is quite helpless.
Because Indonesia has always positioned itself as a mediator between China and the United States, Indonesia and most ASEAN countries have advocated that they should maintain an independent position and mediate between major powers, doing business with China and maintaining good relations with the United States.
This has made ASEAN China's largest trading partner in recent years, and at this time, if the original balance between supply and demand in the international market is broken, some goods that have been produced will have to find new markets, and Indonesia has a much smaller market capacity than Western countries.
In order to ensure its own security, Indonesia can only follow up on protectionist measures, but the main responsibility should not be attributed to China, but to the United States, which took the initiative to initiate a trade war and build trade barriers.
A similar situation is also in India, according to the news obtained by Reuters on June 29, the Indian government is negotiating on the increase in the number of steel imports from China, and plans to impose steel tariffs on China.
This series of events is sounding the alarm for Western countries, if they insist on promoting a trade war, trade barriers will only continue to grow and spread, and if all countries in the world are engaged in trade protectionism, the global market and production and supply chain built in the past few decades will collapse, and Western countries will only suffer as a result.
Mexico's behavior is even worse, directly robbing Chinese companies
In addition to Indonesia and India, Mexico has also recently made moves against China, but Mexico's nature is worse than India's, directly to the extent of overt robbery.
On June 24, the Chinese company Ganfeng Lithium announced that all the concessions of the nine major lithium mines held by its subsidiaries in Mexico had been cancelled by the Mexican General Directorate of Mines, and the reason given by the Mexican General Directorate of Mines was that the company did not meet the minimum investment requirements.
In order to acquire the mining rights of these lithium mines, Ganfeng Lithium spent 190 million pounds, or about 1.556 billion yuan, to buy the entire equity of these lithium projects from a British company, and since then, it has invested tens of millions of dollars to build a production line to prepare for the production of lithium carbonate in Mexico.
After the Mexican government canceled the mining rights, the investment equivalent to more than one billion yuan of Ganfeng Lithium was all lost, which is completely illegal banditry.
And the initiator behind this is likely to be the United States
In recent years, Chinese companies have frequently invested in Mexico to establish industries related to lithium batteries and electric vehicles.
Because Mexico and the United States have bilateral preferential tax exemption policies, as long as they build factories in Mexico to invest in the production of electric vehicles and electric vehicle-related power batteries and lithium ore products, they can enjoy a low labor price and low tariff environment at the same time, and avoid being affected by US tariff barriers.
As long as the United States is willing to use its influence, there will inevitably be people in Mexico's complex political factions who are willing to work for the United States, and even the Mexican president must not consider pressure from the United States.
This is also a reminder to Chinese companies that there is no such thing as a free lunch.
Mexico, with such a good policy, is not as simple as it seems on the surface, and if you want to step into this muddy water, you have to be mentally prepared.