Aerial view of electric vehicle parking lot.
Koiguo | moment | getty images
Ahead of President Donald Trump’s meeting this week with Chinese President Xi Jinping, bipartisan Michigan lawmakers announced legislation Tuesday that would ban Chinese-made “connected vehicles,” software and hardware from the U.S. market.
Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., chairman of the House Select Committee on China, and Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., “Connected Vehicle Security Act,” closely mirroring bipartisan Senate legislation from Sens. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, that would codify Biden-era connected vehicle restrictions over national security and data collection concerns. Connected vehicles have Internet access and wireless connectivity with other cars or trucks, technology that supporters say could enhance road safety.
“When the Chinese subsidize their manufacturers, manipulate their currency (and) use slave labor we are not competing on a level playing field. It is not a level playing field,” Dingell said in announcing it at a press conference on Tuesday. Bill. “What (China) is trying to do is to penetrate inside our country and fight us from within.”
Under the proposal, the ban on connected vehicle software will be effective from January 1, 2027, while the ban on hardware will begin from January 1, 2030. Russia, North Korea and Iran will also be included in this bill.
The legislation comes as automakers, suppliers, dealers and steelmakers are warning that heavily subsidized Chinese automakers could undercut the U.S. industrial base if they enter the market.
more than this 120 bipartisan house MPs Trump was urged last month not to allow Chinese automakers into the US, after the president suggested in January that he would be open to Chinese automakers building factories in the US if they hired American workers. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamison Greer have since said no plans Withdrawal of existing restrictions.
“(With President Trump), you don’t know what he’s going to do until he does it,” Dingell said. “So what we’re all trying to do is send him a message. The American auto worker and the future of the American auto industry and he needs to protect it and he wants to protect it.”