b'AUGUST 29 - SEPTEMBER 25, 2022CHINA TRADE 23Biden cautious on China tariffs after Pelosis trip, Commerce chief saysHouseSpeakerNancyeratariffsandisweighing PelosisvisittoTaiwanhashisoptions,Raimondosaid. made geopolitics with ChinaHeisverycautiousand particularly complicated asdoesnt want to do anything PresidentJoeBidenweighsthatwouldhurtAmerican the future of tariffs on moreworkers, she said.than$300billioningoodsButIknowheslook- In China, Tesla sources its batteries from Chinas CATL, the worlds largest battery producer. from the US rival, accordinging at it. Weve talked about to his commerce chief. it again recently, and I expect For global automakers regionalismCertainly,ithasmadehellbemakingadecision it a little more challenging,before too long.is the new trend for supply chains GinaRaimondosaidinanPelosivisitedTaipei, interviewonBloombergTaiwan, last week in the face TelevisionsBalanceofof threats and opposition from By Matt Miller, AJOTPower with David Westin .China, which regards Taiwan Its harder, but I am hopefulaspartofitsterritory.She FewsupplychainsrivalSourcing close to vehiclevehicles.WithEVs,thatsthat we will get beyond thatwasthehighest-rankingUS thoseofglobalautomakers,assembly becomes especiallynotablybatteryproduction,and get back to a place wherepoliticiantovisittheisland both in terms of complexitycritical with key, technologi- and the materials that go intowecanhavemoreofthosein 25 years, and Chinese offi-andefficiency,withChinacallyadvancedcomponents,it. Tesla now makes its owndiscussions. cials called it provocative.taking a lead role in the pro- much more apparent as man- (TRENDcontinued onBidenisconsidering(CAUTIOUScontinued on duction of thousands of dif- ufacturersmovetoelectricpage 24) what to do with the Trump- page 30)ferentvehiclecomponents foruseworldwide.Now, theres a major rethink under-way. This is most recently the resultofanunprecedented semiconductor shortage, cou-pled with disrupted access to other parts and materials, all of which led to new vehicle shortages in the US. Aswell,politicalten-sionsfirstraisedtariffsof Chinese-madegoodsbound to the US in 2018. Disputes now are centered on technol-ogy necessary to make elec-tronic vehicles, the future of automotive manufacturing.Chinaandothercoun-tries rode what you might call pre-pandemicstabilityinthe network,saidFosterFinley, who co-leads the transportation andinfrastructurepracticeat consultancy AlixPartners. But I do think that it is substan-tially changed and will con-tinue to change.Regionalismisreplacing globalization. When it comes toautomotive,[thesupply chain]isgettingmuchcloser toeachregion,saidDaniel Karlsson, the managing direc-tor of the consultancy Asia Per-spective. You dont send car parts around the world.t eslAsA PProAchNothing exemplifies this more than Tesla.Tesla now has what it calls giga factories in Shanghai andBerlin,aswellasfour intheUS.Itiscarvingup theautomotiveworldinto spheresofinfluencethe USfortheAmericas,Ger-many for Europe, and China for China, and much of Asia. Whilethismightbemore redundant, it avoids political andsourcingissues.Italso shortensthesupplychain, making transport less depen-dent on lengthy sea voyages and deliveries more assured.Thatmodeliswhere wereheading,saidStan-ley Chao, managing director of All In Consulting and the author of Selling to China.'