The EU had previously investigated Chinese companies and levied tariffs according to the level of state support to neutralize market distortion. Now, EU is dropping tariffs and instead creating a cartel for the industry.

  • CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    23
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    2 days ago

    Until car companies have slave labor, control of the world’s rare earth minerals, and a bottomless pit of money comparable to the Chinese government for both R&D and consumer subsidies, that’s completely impossible.

    China isn’t doing this for altruistic reasons, they’re leveraging their position to put every other automaker in the world out of business. They’re cozying up to China currently because the US is being run by a lunatic and they need powerful allies.

    • tal@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 day ago

      control of the world’s rare earth minerals

      China’s dominance isn’t really because China has exclusive access to known reserves of it. It’s because China dominates the processing industry for these. I’d guess that at least some of that is probably due to more-permissive environmental regulations.

      https://www.npr.org/2025/07/23/nx-s1-5475137/china-rare-earth-elements

      Many so-called rare earth elements are actually quite common, and they are mined globally, but China has a near-monopoly on refining them for use in everyday electronics, like smartphones and speakers, as well as for crucial defense systems, like fighter jets.

      https://rareearthexchanges.com/news/how-china-processes-rare-earths-what-review-really-shows/

      Environmental performance differs regionally—higher impacts at Bayan Obo (legacy tailings, fluorine management), lower-impact circuits in Sichuan, and improving in-situ protocols in the South. Nonetheless, wastewater, ammonium-nitrogen, and tailings management remain significant sustainability challenges. And we know the devastating state of Myanmar’s heavy rare earth mining operations.

    • beanie@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      Canada is lowering Chinese EV tariffs because that orange madman is trying to destroy Canadian and Mexican auto sectors.
      If he wants to shit in his own hat, we’ll help him pull it well down over his ears.