Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher warns of flood of Chinese electric vehicles

One of Wisconsin’s congressmen is warning about a potential Chinese strategy to corner the market on electric cars.

Congressman Mike Gallagher and other members of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party this week sent a letter to the U.S. ambassador warning China may flood the U.S. market with electric vehicles.

“We are concerned by how the People’s Republic of China is preparing to flood the United States and global markets with automobiles, particularly electric vehicles, propped up by massive subsidies and long-standing localization and other discriminatory policies employed by the PRC,” Gallagher and the Select Committee wrote in the letter. “We request that the Office of the United States Trade Representative consider whether to launch a new Section 301 investigation into these practices and the harm they pose to the American automotive industry and American workers and what actions should be taken to counter the PRC’s industrial strategy to dominate the global automobile market.”

Gallagher has been a pointed critic of the Chinese Communist Party for years, so his focus on Chinese EVs is not out of character.

His letter is to United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Katherine Tai.

“For more than a decade, the PRC has given its homegrown automakers an unfair competitive advantage, providing them with discriminatory government subsidies and preferential market access policies, while pressuring foreign automotive firms to localize and transfer their core technologies to PRC firms. While the PRC strategy is not new, the threat this long-standing push now poses to U.S. and global auto markets is unmistakable,” the letter continued.

Gallagher said the U.S. needs to continue tariffs on Chinese EVs and add more restrictions on the country’s automakers.

“The United States has thus far been spared by a surge of PRC vehicles because PRC vehicles are ineligible for tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act and because of the additional 25 percent tariffs on PRC-imported vehicles put in place under Section 301 in 2018,” Gallagher’s letter adds. “We applaud the Biden Administration for maintaining these tariffs on PRC automobiles. It is critical that tariffs on PRC automobiles not only be maintained but also increased to stem the expected surge in PRC imports. If PRC automakers are able to withstand sustained losses with the support of the PRC government, it is only a matter of time before PRC manufacturers will be able to absorb the additional 25% tariff on PRC vehicles to access the U.S. market.”