Senators urge Trump to bar Chinese automakers from building cars in US

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, April 3 (Reuters) - Three Democratic senators on Friday urged President Donald Trump to bar Chinese automakers from building vehicles in the United States and to prevent Chinese cars assembled in Mexico or Canada from entering the United States.

Senators Tammy Baldwin, Elissa Slotkin and Chuck Schumer cited Trump's comments in January in Detroit that he is open to Chinese automakers building U.S. factories. Currently, high barriers already exist for Chinese autos in the United States, including tariffs of around 100%, but U.S. consumers have become more interested in the vehicles, according to recent surveys.

"We must be clear-eyed that inviting China’s automakers to set up shop in the United States would confer an insurmountable economic advantage impossible for American automakers to overcome, and it would trigger a national security crisis that could never be reversed," the lawmakers said in a letter to Trump first reported by Reuters.

Asked for comment, the White House said "while the administration is always working to secure more investment into America’s industrial resurgence, any notion that we would ever compromise our national security to do so is baseless and false."

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.

The Biden administration imposed sweeping regulations that effectively ban Chinese automakers from selling passenger vehicles in the United States in January 2025, citing national security concerns linked to 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. Last month, auto trade groups representing nearly all major car companies urged the U.S. government to keep ​Chinese carmakers out of the country ahead of Trump's planned summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in May.

Earlier this week, Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio said he will propose legislation to seal off the United States so "there's never a scenario where a Chinese automobile will enter our market, that's hardware, that's software, that's partnerships."

"While a new plant opened by a Chinese automaker in the United States may create some assembly and temporary construction jobs, that small number of jobs will not make up for the lasting job loss," the letter from Slotkin, Baldwin and Schumer added.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately comment Friday. Earlier this week, the embassy 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 senators noted that in February automaker BYD was among a group of companies briefly added to a list of Chinese firms allegedly aiding Beijing's military.

"The administration should move without hesitation to designate BYD and other Chinese automakers as military-connected entities," they wrote.