(Reuters) -The Biden administration in the United States is discussing raising tariffs on some Chinese goods, including electric vehicles (EVs), the Wall Street Journal said on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
China’s vehicle exports have grown in recent years, fuelled by overcapacity and slowing domestic demand in the world’s biggest auto market, and are expected to rise 25% next year to 5.3 million units, China Merchants Bank International says.
The Journal report follows a request to the administration by a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers last month to hike tariffs on Chinese-made vehicles and investigate ways to prevent Chinese firms from exporting to the United States from Mexico.
Chinese automobiles currently face a 25% levy introduced during the administration of former President Donald Trump and extended by his successor.
The U.S. government is debating Trump-era duties on roughly $300 billion of Chinese goods, aiming for early next year to wrap up a long-running review of the tariffs, the paper added.
The Biden administration is also considering lowering tariffs on some Chinese consumer products that officials do not see as strategically important, in addition to the potential increases on clean-energy products, the paper said.
Foreign automakers including Tesla also use China as a major export hub.
Lawmakers have said earlier that U.S. automakers are exporting Chinese-made vehicles to the United States, a sign that current import tariffs are insufficient.
China will follow developments closely and take necessary measures to safeguard its legitimate interests, a spokesperson of its foreign ministry told a daily briefing on Thursday.
The office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the National Security Council did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
(Reporting by Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru, Qiaoyi Li in Beijing and Miyoung Kim in Singapore; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
