China’s Automakers to Skirt Tariffs, Fill U.S. Market with Electric Vehicles

Some of China’s biggest automakers are looking to skirt United States tariffs and flood the nation’s auto market with cheap Electric Vehicles (EVs) — a move that would further crush American auto workers and the domestic plants where they work.

According to Automotive News, Chinese-owned Volvo Cars is hoping to use the little-known Duty Drawback Program to “recoup import duties and the 25 percent U.S. tariff assessed on the Chinese-made Volvo EX30 crossover and Polestar 2 sedan against exports of the U.S.-made Volvo EX90 and Polestar 3 crossovers.”

General Motors (GM) has been using the Duty Drawback Program for years to mitigate United States tariffs on its Chinese-made Buick Envision Crossover.

Dr. Kent Kaiser, executive director of Trade Alliance to Promote Prosperity, detailed to Breitbart News how many Chinese companies already circumvent United States tariffs and thus dump highly-subsidized cheap products in the market.

“Our research indicates that Sunsong and other Chinese firms employ fraudulent transshipping to obscure the origin of their auto-part products and skirt U.S. tariffs,” Kaiser said. “This practice floods the U.S market with Chinese Communist Party-subsidized goods that disadvantage American manufacturers and bolster a company integral to China’s economic expansion.”

“Amid China’s growing global aggression, preserving tariff integrity is imperative,” Kaiser said. “Ensuring vigilant oversight and enforcement … is essential to protect Americans. Federal agencies have acted on such cases before, but more must be done to ensure violators of U.S law face consequences.”

As Breitbart News has chronicled, Chinese automakers have sought to take advantage of President Joe Biden’s rapid green energy push that has yet to secure domestic manufacturing capacity and the critical minerals necessary to build EV batteries.

China, meanwhile, has made tremendous gains in the global auto industry. Sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States and European nations following its invasion of Ukraine have helped make China the world’s biggest exporter of cars.

Likewise, China controls the supply chains of minerals such as nickel, graphite, lithium, and cobalt that are needed to make EV batteries.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.