FP LIVE - WTO’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: “We are very concerned. - the Biden administration quadrupled U.S. tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles to a scarcely believable 100 percent.

 

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WTO’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: “We are very concerned.”

On Tuesday, the Biden administration quadrupled U.S. tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles to a scarcely believable 100 percent. The move is hardly partisan. On hearing the news, U.S. President Joe Biden’s rival, former President Donald Trump, told reporters he would have wanted more taxes on more products. “China is eating our lunch right now,” Trump said.  “We are certainly concerned,” said World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, speaking on FP Live. “We don’t want to see a further escalation of these kinds of measures between the two big powers in the world.” “We would not want the world to fragment into two trading blocs, one with the U.S. and one with China, because that will be a big loss to the world. When we do these studies of such a break, it shows everyone would lose. The U.S. would lose. China would lose. And developing countries would lose more if we broke into two geopolitical blocs along those lines. So we are very concerned,” Okonjo-Iweala said. “We are watching now and hoping that we will not see a further deterioration in the relationship. The measures announced, we looked at them. The EVs are only 2 percent of the U.S. market. All the things that tariffs were slapped on totaled about 7 percent of U.S.-China trade in 2023. So if things are kept narrow sectorally and not broadened, then we might be able to move along.”

CATCH UP ON THE FULL CONVERSATION Watch the full interview.  See highlights from this FP Live. Read a condensed and edited transcript.

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