There are already very high walls of protectionism keeping lots of potentially disruptive imports out of the USA, so I don't expect these to have the impact that NYT thinks they will.

[–] determinism2@hexbear.net 35 points 8 months ago

The purpose of this article I didn't read is probably to manufacture consent to increase the protectionism.

Subsidies likely won’t be enough; Mr. Biden will need to impose new trade restrictions. But here’s where it gets messy. The case for protecting the American auto market from Chinese E.V.s is obvious, politically essential, but also highly troublesome. In the short term, American automakers — even the homegrown electric-only carmakers like Tesla and Rivian — must be shielded from a wave of cheap cars.

yep

[–] zifnab25@hexbear.net 27 points 8 months ago

We export $55B in automotive cars and parts annually. If China gets a foothold in Mexico or starts dominating markets in Europe or Indonesia or India, the Americans are in for a lot of pain long term.

There's also a demoralizing effect of foreign countries having better cars than the states. Japan really fucked the American psyche with Toyota's global dominance.