Western Tariffs on Chinese Electric Vehicles Are Justifiable to Protect Manufacturing
Wayne Ting · Wayne Ting, CEO @Lime: From Losing $3 on Every $1 to $90M in EBITDA | E1252 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Jan 27, 2025 · at 54:20
Wayne Ting is the CEO of Lime. He responds to Harry Stebbings' question about whether Western countries should restrict heavily subsidized Chinese electric vehicles.
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“I think that the use of tariffs in kind of like some of these Chinese electric vehicles, both in the United States and in Europe, I feel like is, is justifiable because you want to make sure people have a level playing field in terms of, I think one of the lies of the last couple of decades is that free, free trade benefits everybody. It doesn't benefit the person working on the factory plant for the last 20 years who's going to lose this job and have no ability to find a new job. And domestic production of cars is crucial, and not only for economic consumption, job creation, but also to ensure that in the long run there is a domestic capacity to produce cars. So I think creating some tariffs so we can level the playing field between domestic producers and foreign producers feels fair.”
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