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eldavi ,

i wonder if this means that the american and western european tariffs on EV's will work.

circuscritic , (edited )

Depends on what the definition of "working" is.

If it's to damage China's EV producers, then yes, they'll work.

If it's to promote sales of domestically produced EVs, then probably a bit, although to what degree is unknown.

If it's to help domestic producers ramp up and grow the domestic EV market at, or around, the same rates that cheap imported EVs would... probably not.

Which circles back to, if the goal is to dampen and slow the adoption of EVs en masse, then yes, it will probably work. Although, to what degree is unknown and can be heavily influenced by other forms of legislation and regulation.

gravitas_deficiency ,

The goal is to stop China from trying to own the EV market, which is what they’re trying to do by subsidizing export production.

Subsidizing export production is VERY different from subsidizing domestic production. The former is a type of economic warfare; the latter is a domestic policy mechanism. I know it’s nuanced but there is absolutely a meaningful difference.

circuscritic , (edited )

That is their publicly stated goal, but that doesn't mean it's the policies true objective, or it's only one.

I'm not providing any moral, or value, judgement on any of this, nor am I claiming to know what went on inside the halls of power when crafting this policy that isn't public knowledge.

I'm simply stating that there are many "objectives" that this policy might be intended to achieve, other then what's been publicly promoted.

Which is pretty much true for any piece of legislation or new regulations that get processed through bureaucratic machinery with many competing outside influences and pressures.

FWIW I'm not a free trade economic liberal. I support protectionism, when it's justified. Especially in cases where it protects workers, or counters hostile policies e.g. dumping.

eldavi ,

It never occurred to me that the tariffs could be for anything other than blocking off access to affordable EV's to protect automaker profits; I guess Reddit has made me cynical

circuscritic ,

There are legitimate justifications for this type of protectionism, such as dumping and other predatory pricing schemes. Those are reasonable and legitimate concerns in this instance.

My point was that for a policy with so many vested and monied interests, it's not unreasonable to consider that the policy makers might have alternative, or additional, policy objectives as well, including ones that aren't publicly acknowledged.

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