‘The tariff increases announced today will further blunt the harmful policies and practices’ by the Chinese regime, said the U.S. Trade Representative.
The U.S. government is raising its tariff rates on Chinese solar wafers and polysilicon to 50 percent and certain tungsten products to 25 percent, effective Jan. 1, 2025.
“The tariff increases announced today will further blunt the harmful policies and practices by the People’s Republic of China,” U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai stated in a Dec. 11 announcement.
U.S. officials have criticized China for predatory trade practices, pointing to a history of Beijing directing Chinese industries to price competitors out of the market in strategic fields.
Tai said these materials are related to renewable energy technologies, a cornerstone of the Biden administration agenda, and the tariff increases are meant to strengthen their supply chains.
The tariffs come under Section 301, a statute that allows the United States to take trade action when foreign countries violate U.S. trade agreements.
Section 301 saw renewed use under the Trump administration, which applied a series of tariffs and sanctions in attempts to hold the Chinese regime accountable for breaking trade agreements. The Biden administration continued and expanded on those actions, maintaining and increasing the tariffs upon renewal. The cleantech tariffs announced on Dec. 11 were implemented by the Biden administration and are up for a four-year renewal.
The trade representative’s office recommended these tariffs after an investigation found that the Chinese regime engaged in “specific unfair measures” that included cyber theft and industrial espionage and implemented laws in China that forced foreign companies to share ownership, intellectual property, and license technology to Chinese firms at non-market prices.
The investigations also revealed supply chain dependence on China in some strategic sectors, such as critical minerals and medical materials. During the COVID-19 pandemic, several tariffs had to be postponed to allow for timely imports of medical care materials, such as parts used in radiation surgery, ultrasonic scanning devices, professional blood pressure monitors, MRI devices, anesthetic instruments, and equipment used in X-rays.
The investigations began in 2017 during the first Trump administration and have continued. In the 2024 report, the USTR concluded that China’s unfair practices have continued and, in some cases, worsened. The report recommends that Congress assess different approaches to shifting supply chains away from China, where U.S. entities are exposed to Beijing’s technology transfer laws.
Tai has increased tariffs on other Chinese imports, including electric vehicles, syringes and needles, medical globes, semiconductors, solar cells, facemasks, and steel and aluminum products.
However, the report notes that the government is aware of evidence that companies intentionally evade these import duties, but the extent of this evasion is unknown. Since the Section 301 tariffs were imposed in 2018, annual imports have increased 18 percent to $3.11 trillion in 2023, and there is concern that Customs and Border Protection lacks the resources to assess all duties.
The report also points to Chinese state-sponsored cyberespionage as a key risk to American companies’ intellectual property and recommends that intelligence agencies educate the private sector on increasing cyber defenses.