Republican senator proposes to widen US ban on Chinese autos

By Kalea Hall and David Shepardson

NEW YORK, March 31 (Reuters) – Republican Senator Bernie Moreno said on Tuesday he will introduce legislation next month to toughen a U.S. government ban on Chinese automakers from entering the American market, and encouraged other countries to follow suit.

The Biden administration imposed a sweeping regulation that effectively bans all Chinese automakers from selling passenger vehicles in the United States in January 2025, citing national security concerns about the ability of vehicles to collect sensitive data on American owners.

The ban has the strong backing of U.S. carmakers and other auto groups. Earlier this month, major auto trade groups urged the U.S. government to keep ​Chinese carmakers out of the country, according to a letter seen by Reuters, ahead of President Donald Trump’s planned summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in May.

Senator Moreno said his proposed legislation would go further than the ban on imports, and would seal off the U.S. so “there’s never a scenario where a Chinese automobile will enter our market, that’s hardware, that’s software, that’s partnerships.” 

“There will not be a Chinese automobile here. And what I’m hoping is that Latin America, Mexico, Canada and Europe, adopt our same standards now,” he said at an Automotive Forum event ahead of the New York Auto Show.

“We don’t allow Huawei to come into our telecommunications infrastructure. We’re not going to allow Chinese automakers into this market,” Moreno said, referring to U.S. government rules barring the Chinese telecom company. “We’re going to prevent the cancer from coming into our market, and we’re going to need the other countries to do chemotherapy.” 

The Chinese Embassy in Washington said China’s door has been open to global auto companies but the United States has “engaged in trade protectionism and set up obstacles including discriminatory subsidy policies to obstruct access to the U.S. market by Chinese-made cars.”

The embassy added Moreno’s legislation “violates the principles of a market economy and fair competition, and is typical protectionism and economic coercion. China firmly opposes this.”

Trump ​is expected to visit China in May as the world’s two biggest economies seek to maintain ​the stability that has characterized their relations since late last year, after a bruising period marked by Trump’s tariffs and ‌China’s chokehold ⁠on rare earths exports.

In January, Trump said he was ​open to Chinese automakers building vehicles in the United States. “If they want to ​come in ⁠and build a plant and hire you and hire your friends and your neighbors, that’s great, I love that,” he told the Detroit Economic Club.

(Reporting by Kalea Hall and David Shepardson; Editing by Stephen Coates)