It’s not often that you can squeeze zebras into a column about trade tariffs, but against the backdrop of a trade war over electric vehicles, with the US election, the Chinese economy and the global climate at stake, let’s try.
The Biden administration is imposing heavy tariffs on Chinese goods, especially electric vehicles. Medium term, the effect will be to block cheap EVs entering the US market, which is bad for the planet, bad for American consumers and great for anyone else who wants to make EVs in, or sell EVs to, the US.
But long term? The long game is to try to shift the structure of the US economy towards the manufacturing of green technologies such as solar panels, batteries and electric cars. Might that work? That’s where the zebras come in.