The United States government has fired a very small warning shot in its so-called trade war with China— in the world of batteries, that is.
Proposed Tariffs are only set to be imposed in very limited areas— silver primary batteries, zinc air batteries and nickel cadmium batteries— other than those used in electric vehicles.
Aficionados will rapidly realise that if there is indeed any trade in this area it will be negligible.
Indeed the tokenism gets even more apparent when the rules are examined from the perspective of lead-acid batteries. Here a barrier is put up for… separators.
Battery Council International was unable to furnish any information on how many Chinese lead-acid batteries are imported by the US from China, but unnamed sources told BBB that any further racking up of tariff categories in this sector could cut off America’s nose to spite its face. Probably more than 50% of lithium secondary systems imported into the US are of Chinese origin and perhaps 80% of those used in consumer electronics are of Chinese origin, including those used in mobile phones and other portable devices.
A spokesperson for US-based JCI told BBB: “We are in the process of evaluating potential impacts any tariffs may have on our business and are not in a position to comment at the moment.”
