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Robert Delaney

Dewey Sim

Donald Trump threatened to raise tariffs on car imports, including from China, in his pledge to boost the auto manufacturing sector in the United States as he accepted the Republican Party’s presidential nomination on Thursday night.
“Right now as we speak, large factories are being built across the border in Mexico … They are being built by China to make cars and to sell them into our country [with] no tax or anything,” he said as the crowd jeered.
“We’re going to bring back car manufacturing and we’re going to bring it back fast.
“They are building some of the largest auto plants anywhere in the world,” he said, calling instead for factories to be built in the US and for Americans to “man those plants”.
“And if they don’t agree with us we will put a tariff of around 100 to 200 per cent on each car, and they will be unsellable in the US.”
He told the convention: “We will not let countries come in, take our jobs, and plunder our nation. The way they will sell their product in America is to build it in America, and only in America.”

The former president’s comments came just four months before the US general election, with expectations that candidates from both parties will harden their stance towards China.
Trump was US president from 2017 to 2021, defeated in his re-election bid in 2020 by Biden. This year’s race pits the two rivals against each other again, although there are growing divisions in the Democratic Party over whether President Joe Biden will be its nominee.
Trump – who had the Republican nomination all but locked up after primary rivals, including his former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, dropped out of the running earlier this year – took a hard line against China on the economic front during his first term.
His actions represented a fundamental shift from decades of close bilateral integration that increased when Beijing acceded to the World Trade Organization in 2001, a move that helped make China the world’s second-largest economy.
The trade war that Trump launched against Beijing in July 2018, in the form of tariffs of up to 25 per cent on more than US$500 billion worth of imports from China, have remained in place throughout Biden’s term.
As US inflation gathered pace in 2022 – a consequence, economists say, of the pandemic – it became a talking point for Republicans accusing Biden of causing the problem.
The president resisted pressure from the American business community to remove the tariffs, even adding more in May, as he accused Beijing of sticking with unfair trade practices that had prompted Trump to start the trade war.
Economists have questioned the trade war’s efficacy, noting the degree to which imports of Chinese goods have been re-routed through Vietnam and other countries. America’s trade deficit with China has shown only a slight decrease, to US$279 billion from US$300 billion, between 2019 and 2023.
The Tax Foundation, an independent think tank in Washington, estimated last month that tariffs introduced by Trump and Biden “will reduce long-run GDP by 0.2 per cent … and employment by 142,000 full-time equivalent jobs”.
The foundation estimated that US importers had paid a cumulative US$79 billion owing to the punitive levies.


Trump has vowed to raise tariffs across the board on all imports if elected, but has not been consistent about what he would do about those on Chinese imports.
The former president previously vowed to impose a 60 per cent tariff on Chinese goods, but did not repeat this pledge during his debate with Biden last month.
He walked back the percentage during a recent interview with Bloomberg, while he has not retracted his commitment to impose a 10 per cent tariff on all imports into the US.
On Thursday, Trump said the US had had the “greatest economy” when he was in office and that Washington was “beating every country, including China, by leaps and bounds”.
His threat on car tariffs followed an earlier move by the Biden administration to quadruple duties on Chinese-made electric vehicles in May, even when China only accounted for about 2 per cent of the EV imports to the US.
In his acceptance speech, Trump pledged to bring stability to the world, touting himself as the “first president in modern times to start no new wars”.
He said his opponents had “inherited a world at peace and turned it into a planet of war”, adding that Washington’s “chaotic” withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 had allowed other conflicts.
“Emboldened by that disaster, Russia invaded Ukraine. They saw this group of people that were incompetent … Now China is likewise circling Taiwan,” Trump said.
He said “war like no other” was brewing around the world while blaming the Biden administration for the Ukraine and Israel-Gaza crises.
“War is now raging in Europe and the Middle East, a growing spectre of conflict hangs over Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines and all of Asia, and our planet is teetering on the edge of world war III, and this will be a war like no other,” he said.
Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be eventually reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.
Trump quoted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban as saying that both Russia and China were “afraid of” the former US president, adding that unlike under other administrations, Moscow “took nothing” during his presidency.
“I will end every single international crisis that the current administration has created, including the horrible war with Russia and Ukraine which would never have happened if I were president, and the war caused by the attack on Israel,” he said.
Trump also offered brief comments on Pyongyang, saying he “got along very well” with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and “it’s nice to get along with somebody who has a lot of nuclear weapons” – even though he admitted Pyongyang was “acting up again”.
As Republicans move towards the election unified under Trump, it is becoming increasingly uncertain that he will face Biden, whom the White House said on Wednesday had tested positive for Covid-19.
Biden was already under siege by many Democrats asking him to step down as a candidate for re-election following a disastrous performance in his debate with Trump on June 27.
Most recently, Democratic congressman Adam Schiff of California, who is expected to win his race for a US Senate seat, called for Biden on Wednesday to “pass the torch”.
Schiff is a close ally of former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who wields significant influence in the party.

Citing people familiar with the situation, CNN reported on Thursday that Pelosi had privately told Biden recently that polling showed that he could not defeat Trump.
Similar reports accumulated throughout the day.
By evening in Washington, Reuters reported that Biden was taking calls to step aside as the Democratic presidential candidate seriously and that multiple Democratic officials thought an exit was a matter of time.
“His soul searching is actually happening, I know that for a fact,” Reuters cited one source as saying. “He’s thinking about this very seriously.”


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Trump, accepting Republican presidential nomination, vows high tariffs on China-made cars

Republican presidential candidate and former US president Donald Trump, his running mate Senator J.D. Vance and their families celebrate on the final day of the Republican National Convention on Thursday. Photo: AP

Trump and US President Joe Biden during their debate at CNN studios in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 27. Photo: AFP

Biden arrives at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Wednesday, en route to his home in Rehoboth Beach to self-isolate after testing positive for Covid-19. Photo: AP

Trump’s pick J.D. Vance takes stage protesting US jobs lost in China ‘sweetheart deal’

Donald Trump’s running mate Senator J.D. Vance stands on stage during the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin on July 17. Photo: AFP

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump with vice-presidential nominee Vance on Tuesday at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a day after Trump tapped Vance as his running mate. Photo: Reuters

Joe Biden tests positive for Covid-19, scraps Las Vegas event

US President Joe Biden speaks at an event in Las Vegas on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

US President Joe Biden boards Air Force One at Harry Reid international airport in Las Vegas on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters

US President Joe Biden and Maritza Rodriguez, Biden for President Latina adviser, greets patrons at Linda Michoacan Mexican Restaurant during a stop in Las Vegas on Wednesday. Photo: AP

Biden walks down the steps of Air Force One at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Wednesday night. Photo: AP

Trump says Taiwan should pay US for defence: ‘they took about 100% of our chip business’

US presidential nominee Donald Trump arrives for the second day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters

The logo of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s (TSMC) is seen at the opening of the chip maker’s global R&D centre in Hsinchu, Taiwan, last year. Photo: Reuters

A TSMC factory is seen under construction in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2022. Full-scale operations at the plant were planned to begin this year. Photo: Kyodo

Barack Obama tells allies Joe Biden needs to reconsider his re-election bid, US reports say

Calls for President Joe Biden to withdraw for the US election could intensify following his recent case of Covid. Photo: AFP

Former US president Barack Obama speaks in Athens, Greece, in June 2023. Photo: AP

President Joe Biden waves as he walks down the steps of Air Force One at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Wednesday. Biden is returning home to self-isolate after testing positive for Covid-19. Photo: AP

Joe Biden clears his throat as he speaks at an event in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 16. Photo: AFP

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Party convention ends with Trump vowing ‘a tariff of around 100 to 200 per cent on each car, and they will be unsellable in the US’


Party convention ends with Trump vowing ‘a tariff of around 100 to 200 per cent on each car, and they will be unsellable in the US’.
