Japanese automaker Toyota on Tuesday denounced the proposed “discriminatory” White House and Congress subsidies for electric vehicles as part of Joe Biden’s plans, joining their protest to those of some 20 countries.
The US Congress plans to “offer an additional subsidy of $ 4,500 only for electric vehicles manufactured by workers who have decided to join a union,” said Toyota in a statement.
“What do we say to the American consumer? That if he wants to buy an electric vehicle that is not manufactured by Ford, General Motors or Chrysler (the three American giants, Editor’s note), he will have to pay $ 4,500 more”, deplores industrial.
The White House and Congress struck a deal last week for the gigantic investments Joe Biden wanted.
This text, still discussed in Congress, provides for a maximum tax credit of $ 12,500 for electric vehicles.
This sum includes the current deduction which can go up to 7,500 dollars to which is added a tax credit of 4,500 dollars if the vehicle is manufactured by unionized workers in the United States as well as 500 dollars if the battery is also American made.
The ambassadors to the United States from 24 countries, including France, Germany, Mexico, Canada and Japan, sent a letter on Saturday to elected officials of the American Congress.
According to them, “this type of practice (…) discriminates against foreign car manufacturers and harms international trade agreements”.
Mexico and Canada have specified that this measure does not comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) agreement, which replaced the NAFTA (North American free trade agreement) in January 2020. .
This subsidy “would reduce the choice of consumers on the market, to only two vehicles eligible for the total (tax) credit, out of more than 50 vehicles currently available”, underline these ambassadors.
This would exclude manufacturers who do not manufacture their cars in the United States, but also Tesla.
“It seems counterproductive to achieving our common carbon emissions targets,” they add.
The powerful American automobile union, the UAW (United Auto Workers), mainly represented at General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, had on the contrary, in a press release, welcomed this bill.
“For the transition to electric vehicles to work for our communities, we need policies that promote manufacturing in the United States and good union jobs,” he said in a statement.
jul / Dt / els
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