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What are Biden's new tariffs on China goods?

[May 14, 2024] WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden is hiking tariffs on $18 billion in Chinese goods including electric vehicles, batteries, semiconductors, steel, aluminum, critical minerals, solar cells, ship-to-shore cranes, and medical products, while retaining Trump-era tariffs on over $300 billion in goods.

The United States Trade Representative's Office told Reuters it anticipates the effective date will be in approximately 90 days.

The following products will be targeted:

* Certain steel and aluminum products: Tariffs more than triple on some these products, estimated earlier at at least $1 billion in goods, from the current range of zero to 7.5% to 25% in 2024. The White House cited "China’s non-market overcapacity in steel and aluminum, which are among the world’s most carbon intensive."

* Semiconductors: Tariffs will increase from 25% to 50% by 2025, the White House said, citing China's huge share in new semiconductor wafers coming online and a spike in prices during the pandemic. "China’s policies in the legacy semiconductor sector have led to growing market share and rapid capacity expansion that risks driving out investment by market-driven firms."

* Electric Vehicles: Tariffs will increase from 25% to 100% in 2024 (on top of a separate 2.5% tariff), the White House said, citing "extensive subsidies and non-market practices leading to substantial risks of overcapacity." The U.S. Trade Representative's Office said plug-in hybrid electric vehicles will be covered by the new tariffs but not hybrid vehicles.

* Batteries, Battery Components and Parts: Tariffs on lithium-ion EV batteries will increase from 7.5% to 25% in 2024, while the tariff rate on lithium-ion non-EV batteries will increase from 7.5% to 25% in 2026. Tariff rates on battery parts will increase from 7.5% to 25% in 2024

* Critical minerals: Tariffs for certain critical minerals will increase from 0 to 25% in 2024.

Minerals covered by the new tariffs include: Manganese ores and concentrates including ferruginous manganese ores & concentrates with manganese content over 20% calculated on dry weight; Cobalt ores and concentrates; Aluminum ores and concentrates; Zinc ores and concentrates; Chromium ores and concentrates; Tungsten concentrates, oxides, carbide, powders and Tungstates (wolframates); Tritium and its compounds, alloys, dispersions, ceramic products and mixtures thereof; Actinium, Californium, Curium, Einsteinium, Gadolinium, Polonium, Radium, Uranium & their compounds, alloys, dispersions, ceramic products & mixtures; Other radioactive elements, isotopes, compounds; alloys, dispersions, ceramic products and mixtures; Radioactive residues; Ferronickel; Ferroniobium containing by weight less than 0.02% of phosphorus or sulfur or less than 0.4% of silicon; Zinc (other than alloy), unwrought, containing o/99.99% by weight of zinc; Zinc (o/than alloy); Zinc alloy, unwrought; Tin o/than alloy), unwrought; Tin alloy, unwrought; Tantalum, unwrought; tantalum powders; Chromium, unwrought; chromium powders; Indium, unwrought; indium powders

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A man walks past the national flags of China and the U.S. before a meeting between China's Vice Premier He Lifeng and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen at the Guangdong Zhudao Guest House, in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China, April 6, 2024. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo

* Natural graphite and permanent magnets for EV batteries: Tariffs will increase from 0% to 25% in 2026; tariffs for certain other critical minerals will also increase from 0% to 25% in 2024.

* Solar cells: Tariffs on cells - whether assembled into modules or not - will double to 50% in 2024 to "protect against China’s policy-driven overcapacity that depresses prices and inhibits the development of solar capacity outside of China."

* Ship-to-shore cranes: New tariffs of 25% will be added in 2024 to "help protect U.S. manufacturers from China’s unfair trade practices that have led to excessive concentration in the market."

* Medical Products Syringes and needles: New tariffs of 50% will be imposed in 2024; tariffs for certain personal protective equipment (PPE), including some respirators and face masks, will increase from the current range of 0 to 7.5% to 25% in 2024. Tariffs on rubber medical and surgical gloves will increase from 7.5% to 25% in 2026 to "help support and sustain a strong domestic industrial base for medical supplies that were essential to the COVID-19 pandemic response."

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Heather Timmons, Dan Burns and Sonali Paul)

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