The United States Ambassador to the European Union, Mark Gitenstein, stated on Tuesday that the Chinese Communist Party is deliberately distorting the market with surplus cheap products.
China’s overcapacity and export issues are increasingly raising concerns among American and European countries. Gitenstein, in an interview with CNBC, stated that China is “deliberately undermining the economic industries of Europe and the United States.”
The EU Ambassador mentioned that Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, and Charles Michel, President of the European Council, extensively discussed China’s overcapacity problems and how it “distorts our American market and their European market.”
“We will protect our workers, we will protect our industries that are essentially impacted by the PRC (People’s Republic of China), especially in the green technology field,” he added.
Ambassador Gitenstein’s comments came as the Biden administration announced on Tuesday an increase in tariffs on $18 billion worth of Chinese imports, including steel and aluminum, semiconductors, batteries, critical minerals, solar panels, and cranes. The tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles will be raised from 25% to 100%.
The White House stated that for a long time, the Chinese government has engaged in unfair, non-market practices, controlling 70%, 80%, or even 90% of global production through forced technology transfers and intellectual property theft, posing unacceptable risks to the U.S. supply chains and healthcare. Additionally, these non-market policies and practices have led to Chinese overcapacity and a surge in exports, potentially harming American workers, businesses, and communities.
On May 8, President von der Leyen of the European Commission stated the need to stop China from dumping cheap electric vehicles into the European market. The EU is currently conducting an anti-subsidy investigation on Chinese electric vehicles to determine whether punitive tariffs should be imposed.
The reason the U.S. and Europe are concerned about the dumping of cheap Chinese products is that it affects American and European companies, forcing them to close. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated last month that she visited the solar company Suniva in Georgia, which, like many other companies in the industry, was once forced to shut down because it couldn’t compete with a large quantity of cheap Chinese goods.