NEW YORK – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Tuesday the Biden administration’s new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, semiconductors and medical products should be applied to other types of vehicles and products.
“They’ve also got to do it on other vehicles and they have to do it on a lot of other products,” he told reporters as he entered court for his hush money trial in New York. “Because China’s eating our lunch right now. … They have to do it on much more than electric vehicles.”
The former U.S. president criticized President Joe Biden for not doing more on Chinese exports sooner and took credit for the tariff policies his Democratic successor has kept in place as the two face a rematch in November’s presidential election.
Biden unveiled a bundle of steep tariff increases on an array of Chinese imports on Tuesday, including electric vehicle (EV) batteries, computer chips and medical products, risking an election-year standoff with Beijing in a bid to woo voters who give his economic policies low marks.
“He wants to put a big tariffs on China, which is the suggestion that I said, ‘Where have you been for three and a half years?’ They should have done that a long time ago,” Trump said.
Trump’s broader imposition of tariffs during his 2017-2021 presidency kicked off a tariff war with China. As a candidate this year, he has floated tariffs of 60% or higher on all Chinese goods and a 10% across-the-board tariffs on goods from all points of origin.
Biden has touted electric vehicles as a key component of his economic revitalization and climate plans.
Trump said the auto industry in Michigan is doing poorly and criticized Biden’s actions encouraging electric vehicle production, which he calls a mandate.
