German Automakers Stand To Gain The Most If China Trims Us Auto Tariffs

Liu He—Chinese Vice Premier—apparently said Beijing would trim the tariff on auto’s imported from the U.S from 40% to 15% during a call recently with Robert Lighthizer, US Trade Representative, and Steven Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary. It is a footstep toward alleviating the rising trade spats amid the two countries, but its actual outcome on the U.S. auto manufacturers might be restricted, said Kristin Dziczek, an analyst with the CAR (Center for Automotive Research). It might actually concern more to foreign auto manufacturers with firms in the U.S. than for GM (General Motors) and Ford.

American manufacturers have been strike tough by the duties on imported metals that have surged materials prices for cars manufactured in the U.S. With the prominent exception of electric carmaker—Tesla—the U.S. auto manufacturers intend to construct where they are sold. Both GM and Ford have the business set up in China and produce cars there for that market. Ford exports many of its cars to China than GM, Dziczek stated, since it has less of an impression in the country. Whereas both the automakers export several specialty vehicles, which comprises lower-volume sports cars like Chevrolet Corvette and Ford Mustang plus some luxury vehicles. But by far the major numbers of US-made cars are sent to China bearing German names. German auto producers have been getting strike chiefly hard from both the sides of the global trade war.

On a similar note, recently, InvestHK director general stated that investors are still positive about Hong Kong in spite of trade war. The investment prospect in Hong Kong stays optimistic in spite of tensions arising from the US-China trade spat, with the number of jobs produced by foreign investors and Chinese investors striking a record high this year. Stephen Phillips—Director General of InvestHK—made the confident forecast as the agency’s information showed that the number of trade operations with parent firms outside Hong Kong jumped by 6.4% to 8,754 this year, compared to 8,225 in 2017.