Sen. Brown Advises Hiking Tariffs on Chinese EVs; Unsure How Other Section 301 Tariffs May Change

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who warned the White House that reducing the scope of the Section 301 tariff list or reducing tariff levels "could undermine efforts to shore up our domestic manufacturing and supply chains," said he doesn't know the details of what products might leave the target list if the White House hikes tariffs on electric vehicles or their batteries.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the administration might lower tariffs on consumer products that aren't strategically important while hiking tariffs on EV batteries and cars. However, the reporting noted, "Previous internal discussions about adjusting tariffs on China fizzled out without any changes."

Axios later reported, also with unnamed sources, that this trade-off is being considered, and said that cobalt and lithium processed in China might also be targets for tariffs in a modified Section 301 plan.

Brown told International Trade Today in a hallway interview at the Capitol: "I don't know what this compromise means. I do know that the Chinese are going to try to dump a whole bunch of EVs in this country. They have huge capacity to make electric vehicles," and that capacity was created with heavy subsidies, he said.

"My mission is that those batteries and those cars are made by union workers in the United States, especially in Youngstown and around my state, and my conversations with the White House are always: Keep those workers in mind. Center those discussions around those workers. And I don't know for sure what that means in terms of adjusting this tariff and that tariff," he said.

Although Brown's letter to the White House (see 2311210048) had cautioned against any reprieve for importers of Chinese goods, he declined to say that he is against any reduction in Section 301 tariffs.

"I am always about workers, the dignity of work. I don't have an ideological preference for tariffs, I just have an ideological preference for workers at the table and workers are rewarded for the work they do in an economy where they often aren't," he said.

Brown is running for re-election in 2024 in a state where he is the only statewide officeholder who is a Democrat.