舊歌重温: My Eyes Adored You

Frankie Valli

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Chart: Chinese Global EV Exports Surge

Source : Statista

Infographic: Global Gold Production in 2023

Source : Visual Capitalist

Biden Sharply Hikes US Tariffs on an Array of Chinese Imports

Trevor Hunnicutt and Steve Holland wrote . . . . . . . . .

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday unveiled steep tariff increases on an array of Chinese imports including electric vehicle (EV) batteries, computer chips and medical products, risking an election-year standoff with Beijing as he woos American voters who give his economic policies low marks.

“American workers can out-work and out-compete anyone as long as the competition is fair, but for too long it hasn’t been fair,” Biden said during a speech in the White House Rose Garden before unions and companies. “We’re not going to let China flood our market.”

China immediately vowed retaliation. Its commerce ministry said Beijing was opposed to the U.S. tariff hikes and would take measures to defend its interests.

Biden will keep tariffs put in place by his Republican predecessor Donald Trump while ratcheting up others, including a quadrupling of EV duties to over 100% and doubling the duties on semiconductor tariffs to 50%.

The new measures affect $18 billion in imported Chinese goods including steel and aluminum, semiconductors, electric vehicles, critical minerals, solar cells and cranes, the White House said. The EV figure, while headline-grabbing, may have more political than practical impact in the U.S., which imports very few Chinese EVs.

The United States imported $427 billion in goods from China in 2023 and exported $148 billion to the world’s No. 2 economy, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, a trade gap that has persisted for decades and become an ever more sensitive subject in Washington.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the revised tariffs were justified because China was stealing U.S. intellectual property. But Tai recommended tariff exclusions, opens new tab for hundreds of industrial machinery import categories from China, including 19 for solar product manufacturing equipment.

FREE TRADE NO MORE

Even as Biden’s steps fell in line with Trump’s premise that tougher trade measures are warranted, the Democrat took aim at his opponent in November’s election.

Biden cast Trump’s 2020 trade deal with China as failing to increase American exports or jobs, and he said a Trump proposal to raise import tariffs 10% across-the-board from any point of origin would raise prices.

Trump, who has floated tariffs of 60% or higher on all Chinese goods, said on Tuesday the Biden administration’s new tariffs should be applied to other types of vehicles and products “because China’s eating our lunch right now.”

“He’s been feeding them a long time,” Biden retorted when asked about the comment.

Administration officials said their measures are combined with domestic investment in key industries and unlikely to worsen a bout of inflation that has already angered U.S. voters.

Biden has struggled to convince voters of the efficacy of his economic policies despite a backdrop of low unemployment and above-trend economic growth. A Reuters/Ipsos poll last month showed Trump had a 7 percentage-point edge over Biden on the economy.

Analysts have warned that a trade tiff could raise costs for EVs overall, hurting Biden’s climate goals and his aim to create manufacturing jobs.

Biden has said he wants to win this era of competition with China but not to launch a trade war. He has worked in recent months to ease tensions in one-on-one talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Both 2024 U.S. presidential candidates have departed from the free-trade consensus that once reigned in Washington, a period capped by China’s joining the World Trade Organization in 2001. Trump’s broader imposition of tariffs during his 2017-2021 presidency kicked off a tariff war with China.

As part of the long-awaited tariff update, Biden will increase tariffs this year under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 from 25% to 100% on EVs, bringing total duties to 102.5%, from 7.5% to 25% on lithium-ion EV batteries and other battery parts and from 25% to 50% on photovoltaic cells used to make solar panels. Some critical minerals will have their tariffs raised from nothing to 25%.

The tariffs on ship-to-shore cranes will rise to 25% from zero, those on syringes and needles will rise to 50% from nothing now and some personal protective equipment (PPE) used in medical facilities will rise to 25% from as little as 0% now. Shortages in PPE made largely in China hampered the United States’ COVID-19 response.

More tariffs will follow in 2025 and 2026 on semiconductors, as well as lithium-ion batteries that are not used in electric vehicles, graphite and permanent magnets as well as rubber medical and surgical gloves.

A step Biden previously announced to raise tariffs on some steel and aluminum products will take effect this year, the White House said.

A number of lawmakers have called for massive hikes on Chinese vehicle tariffs or an outright ban over data privacy concerns. There are relatively few Chinese-made light-duty vehicles being imported now.

The United Auto Workers, a politically important union that endorsed Biden, said the tariff moves would ensure that “the transition to electric vehicles is a just transition.”

Source : Reuters

China’s Consumer Prices Rise for Third Month, Signalling Demand Recovery

Joe Cash wrote . . . . . . . . .

China’s consumer prices rose for a third straight month in April, while producer prices extended declines, signalling an improvement in domestic demand, as Beijing navigates challenges in its bid to shore up a shaky economy.

The closely watched numbers follow better-than-expected imports data for April, suggesting a flurry of policy support measures over the past several months may be helping consumer confidence.

Consumer prices edged up 0.3% in April from a year earlier, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Saturday, versus a rise of 0.1% in March and a Reuters poll forecast for an increase of 0.2%.

“Strip out food and energy prices, and the consumer inflation data suggests a comeback in demand, especially in services,” said Xu Tianchen, senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Core inflation, excluding volatile food and fuel prices, grew 0.7% in April, up from 0.6% in March.
Overall the consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.1% from the previous month, beating a forecast fall of 0.1% in the poll and reversing a drop of 1% in March.

Most China watchers say Beijing still has its work cut out, though, and the momentum might prove unsustainable, as official surveys show cooling factory and services activity, while a lengthy housing crisis shows no sign of easing, boosting the case for more policy support.

“Price hikes by utility companies is another potential driver,” Xu added.

“The fiscal strains some local governments are facing affect the subsidies they receive, which could be forcing them to pass the extra cost on to households to make ends meet.”

Officials are grappling with municipal debt of $13 trillion, and the State Council, or cabinet, has told heavily indebted local governments to delay or halt some state-funded infrastructure projects.

“The prices data suggests that domestic demand is recovering, supply and demand continues to improve and the outlook for domestic demand and price recovery is optimistic,” said Zhou Maohua, a macroeconomic researcher at China Everbright Bank.

“However, consumer prices remain low and the industrial manufacturing sector is still under pressure, reflecting insufficient effective demand and that recovery in the sector is still not sufficiently balanced.”

The producer price index (PPI) dropped 2.5% in April from a year earlier, easing from a slide of 2.8% the previous month but extending a 1-1/2-year-long stretch of declines.

On Friday, China’s central bank said it would make monetary policy flexible, precise and effective and promote a moderate recovery in consumer prices to consolidate economic recovery.

The comments in a quarterly monetary policy report follow remarks in April by the Politburo, a top-decision making body of the ruling Communist Party, that China will use policy tools, such as banks’ reserve requirement ratio (RRR) and interest rates, to prop up growth.

“Considering the judgement of the Politburo meeting that ‘effective demand is still insufficient…’ the policy support should take advantage of the momentum, by strengthening expectation management and creating more consumption scenarios,” said Bruce Pang, chief economist China at Jones Lang LaSalle.

Many analysts say China’s economic growth target of about 5% in 2024 will be a challenge to achieve without further policy support.

Source : Reuters