Baaaah! The US has imposed tariffs of up to 50% on these Chinese products! Effective January 1, 2025!

US President Joe Biden recently said in a speech that President-elect Donald Trump's threat to impose tariffs on all imports was a "big mistake." 

But just one day later, on December 11, local time, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced that it would increase tariffs on certain tungsten products, silicon wafers and polysilicon imported from China. 

The tax rate for solar wafers and polysilicon will increase to 50%, and the tax rate for certain tungsten products will increase to 25%, and the tariff increase will take effect on January 1, 2025. "The additional tariffs announced today will compensate for the domestic investments the Biden administration has made to promote a clean energy economy while improving the resilience of critical supply chains," said Katherine Tai, the US Trade Representative, in a statement.

 The announced tariff increases were proposed as part of a statutory review of China's tariff actions in the Section 301 investigation into China's practices related to technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation, USTR said. 

USTR's official website document information (Billing Code 3390-F4) shows that tariffs are essential to help the United States produce polysilicon and downstream products, U.S. industry development, and the development of alternative supply chains outside of China. 

"While higher tariffs may initially lead to higher prices, higher tariffs are necessary to allow US domestic producers to compete with China's substantial capacity, protect recent investments, and encourage more domestic manufacturing," the document said. 

The latest move builds on the decision in September to impose a 100 percent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles and a 25 percent tariff on lithium-ion electric vehicle batteries. The Biden administration also imposed tariffs on solar panel imports from Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand in November.

 The US Department of Commerce imposes anti-dumping duties at different rates depending on the company.