I think the biggest obstacle to Chinese brands entering the US isn’t the quality of their products, but poor US-China relations. The way things are, if a Chinese brand started gaining real traction in the US, there’d probably be calls to ban it and other Chinese cars from the country.
The country of manufacture is irrelevant to the US government’s ability to impose restrictions on the sale of new vehicles within their borders. Chinese manufacturers could completely own the Mexican market and still have no presence in the US if a law is passed that says they’re not allowed.
Um it definitely isn’t irrelevant. They can definitely easily create barriers to import of Chinese manufactured vehicles, but once those vehicles begin being manufactured in Mexico, which is within the next few years, USMCA (new NAFTA) comes into play and it becomes extremely difficult to keep them out as long as they meet all other requirements for new vehicles.
Nothing besides maintaining the illusion of free trade stops the US government from singling out a specific company for special restrictions. They already did so to BYD and CRRC in 2021, even though both companies have US factories.
The U.S government can just target sanction any popular Chinese OEMs, but of course that would be an escalation that results in the Chinese sanctioning American companies like GM, Ford and Tesla.
Yes, theoretically they could do that, but it would be pretty easily acknowledged as barely constitutional and illegal under US law (signed trade treaties) to ban named foreign competitors when you start losing.
Most likely there wouldn’t be a hard ban, just Chinese cars are banned from government procurement programs, which shouldn’t hurt them as all foreign cars are excluded in practice.
You don’t see a Toyota or Mercedes police car, and neither companies are struggling.
What might exist is social and peer pressure to not buy one. It might be effective in the heartlands, but costal cities especially ones with high immigrant populations probably won’t care. People want a quality car at a good price.
I think the biggest obstacle to Chinese brands entering the US isn’t the quality of their products, but poor US-China relations. The way things are, if a Chinese brand started gaining real traction in the US, there’d probably be calls to ban it and other Chinese cars from the country.
That’s the thing though: a car made in Mexico can’t be banned without banning basically every automaker.
The only avenues to something like this would be convincing Mexico to make a major law change to prevent Chinese companies from operating.
The country of manufacture is irrelevant to the US government’s ability to impose restrictions on the sale of new vehicles within their borders. Chinese manufacturers could completely own the Mexican market and still have no presence in the US if a law is passed that says they’re not allowed.
That’s not how it works.
Um it definitely isn’t irrelevant. They can definitely easily create barriers to import of Chinese manufactured vehicles, but once those vehicles begin being manufactured in Mexico, which is within the next few years, USMCA (new NAFTA) comes into play and it becomes extremely difficult to keep them out as long as they meet all other requirements for new vehicles.
Nothing besides maintaining the illusion of free trade stops the US government from singling out a specific company for special restrictions. They already did so to BYD and CRRC in 2021, even though both companies have US factories.
The U.S government can just target sanction any popular Chinese OEMs, but of course that would be an escalation that results in the Chinese sanctioning American companies like GM, Ford and Tesla.
Yes, theoretically they could do that, but it would be pretty easily acknowledged as barely constitutional and illegal under US law (signed trade treaties) to ban named foreign competitors when you start losing.
Specially targeting Chinese brands for being Chinese would most likely be a significant escalation that results in retaliation.
China is GM’s largest market and Tesla and Ford’s second largest market, they have significant leverage if they choose to retaliate in kind.
Most likely there wouldn’t be a hard ban, just Chinese cars are banned from government procurement programs, which shouldn’t hurt them as all foreign cars are excluded in practice.
You don’t see a Toyota or Mercedes police car, and neither companies are struggling.
What might exist is social and peer pressure to not buy one. It might be effective in the heartlands, but costal cities especially ones with high immigrant populations probably won’t care. People want a quality car at a good price.