this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2025
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Trump keeps saying China should call and that they will make a deal is more submissive afaik. Though I haven't seen Chinese press conferences. Foreign minister is quoted with response including "joke" insult. Trump did back down to EU a bit "their retaliation tariffs didn't become active yet" (China's hadn't yet either). He specifically sited large volume of Chinese exports in the week to rest of world in US backing down to world. Lobbying is likely to result in US backing off Chinese tariffs soon, with reciprocality on amount lowering.
Cars are extremely hard to rewire trade with. Sales/maintenance dealers/supply chains that integrate back home. Same for heavy industry equipment. Dealers/sales/repair training. Electronics, clothing, toys exports don't have that problem (US is only 12% of Chinese exports. Can increase elsewhere). Importing FFs, agriculture is easy switch. Getting EU/JPN/SK to sell planes, heavy equipment to China is worth it if US competition is blacklisted. Microsoft/Adobe have open source alternatives that do require some switching/retraining, but MSFT afaik was mostly selling to US companies in China for "national security reasons", with CCP advising domestic companies to avoid for same reasons for last few years. US import dependence on China is significantly higher than reverse. China airlines already have mixed boeing/airbus fleets.
I was wondering about support/repair from Chinese cars, as I started seeing BYD ads around.
You're not in North America. BYD has put plants and sales offices/dealers in Europe and elsewhere in the world. EVs tend to need parts replacements instead of repair, but that still means manufacturer support services/infrastructure.