Here's one reason for the current tariff war. .........and why China doesn't buy many US cars. It's called ridiculous tariffs.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/business/economy/china-us-trade-tariffs.html
BEIJING — A Jeep Wrangler can cost $30,000 more in China than in the United States — and the reasons illustrate a growing point of tension between the two countries.
Manufactured in Toledo, Ohio, the Wrangler is a descendant of the jeeps that were used by American forces in World War II. Equipped with a 3.6-liter engine and a five-speed automatic transmission, the Rubicon edition of the Wrangler has a suggested retail price of $40,530 in the United States.
But in China, the same vehicle would set a buyer back by a hefty $71,000, mostly because of taxes that Beijing charges on every car, minivan and sport utility vehicle that is made in another country and brought to China’s shores.
https://nypost.com/2017/07/02/gm-is-producing-popular-car-in-china-exporting-to-us/
And GM, although it is the first of the Big Three automakers to produce a Chinese import, is not alone in exploiting this latest tweak to the global auto supply chain. Earlier this month, Ford announced that it would be moving production of the Ford Focus entirely from the US to China, where it already makes the cars for Chinese buyers, starting in 2019.
But while these production shifts make perfect business sense for US automakers — enabling them to lower production costs and at the same time locate production closer to a huge market — they risk incurring political blowback.
President Trump’s administration has said it would try to level the playing field with China and its treatment of US automakers. They pay 25 percent import taxes to reach Chinese consumers, while foreign carmakers pay just 2.5 percent to access the US market.
And Trumps response?
“Any business that leaves our country for another country, fires its employees, builds a new factory or plant in the other country, and then thinks it will sell its products back into the US without retribution or consequences is WRONG!,” Trump tweeted in December.
He is so,
so right on this one.
Of course not all products have high tariffs, but the ones that do need to be changed.