Why is the US determined to impose high tariffs? China has not yet become a major automobile exporter

According to Forbes, it has become a question for the Trump administration whether the threat of imposing higher tariffs on cars exported from China to the United States makes sense for China.

MG brand cars produced by Shanghai Automotive Group are waiting to be shipped to the United States.

In 2017, China produced 28 million vehicles, of which only 2% were exported. The top three destinations for China's automobile exports in 2017 were Iran, India and Vietnam, which are undoubtedly very price-sensitive markets.

It is worth mentioning that China is not even in the top 15 in the global automobile exporting countries. According to data released by the market research organization World's Top Exports, based on the export value, Thailand, Turkey and even Slovakia have a larger automobile export scale than China. According to current data, it is not an emergency to prevent Chinese-made cars from being exported to the United States.

However, Trump's trade team does not seem to have seen the above data. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, White House Senior Trade Advisor Peter Navarro and Trump himself are "concerned" about possible changes in China in the future.

By 2025, China will become a major exporter, driven by the expansion of export scale and improvement of product quality.

Today, Volvo and General Motors have exported tens of thousands of cars produced in Chinese factories to the United States. In 2017, 41,000 consumers in the United States bought Buick Envision SUVs . How many of them knew that their cars were made in China?

Ford plans to start exporting Focus vehicles made in China in 2019. Chinese consumers buy Ford Focus and Buick Envision in far greater numbers than Americans do, so it makes more economic sense to build them in China.

By 2020, Americans could be buying more than 300,000 Chinese-made cars a year, according to IHS Markit.

The strength that Buick, Volvo and BMW have demonstrated in exports is very impressive, and China also has the ability to produce high-quality cars for export and gain a foothold in the US market, the most competitive in the world.

Data shows that high-performance and high-growth Chinese brands such as GAC, Great Wall, SF Motors and Geely (through the Lynk & Co brand) are planning to accelerate the expansion of car sales in the US market in 2019.

Here are three factors that could power the coming boom in Chinese auto exports:

Official support. The Chinese government strongly encourages its auto companies to enter and compete in global markets. Li Shao, deputy general manager of GAC Group, told Automotive News last week: "Chinese automakers will shift from being recipients of product technology and brands to being exporters of product technology and brands."

Overcapacity. China’s domestic auto market is slowing after years of growth. Sales in the domestic market are set to grow to 29 million vehicles this year. But China is capable of producing 37 million cars and trucks a year.

Electrification. China already accounts for half of the world's electric vehicle production. The industry expects its production to increase from 1 million per year in 2018 to 5 million per year in 2025. Apart from China, which country in the world can achieve this scale? BMW has announced plans to produce the iX3 in China and export it to global markets including the United States.

We can now see that the Trump administration’s talk of raising tariffs on Chinese imports was actually a preemptive protest.

But China is determined to go global. If the United States raises tariffs, Chinese manufacturers will assemble products in the United States, just as Japan, Germany and South Korea have done.

Perhaps the Trump administration’s trade team will call this a victory.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.