Photo by Zbynek Burival on Unsplash
If solar panels really are the way of the future as renewable energy proponents claim, then President Biden is doing his very best to ensure that the future belongs to China. Right now, a full eighty percent of solar panels used in America come directly from China and Chinese companies. Some of those panels are manufactured using slave labor in the Chinese Xinjiang province. Rather than investing in American companies, Biden is giving China even more opportunities to dominate this industry by boasting of a moratorium on solar panel import tariffs from Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia. China controls much of the solar panel industry in those nations, so they fully intend to clandestinely evade American tariffs.
Biden claims that these tariff waivers for these southeast Asian nations are a step forward for American energy independence. In reality, he’s only making another sector of the market reliant on foreign imports. How can we be truly independent if the presidential administration does not believe American companies are up to the task of manufacturing our own solar panels?
China uses unfair business practices to outprice American manufacturers. They employ slave and child labor while ignoring health and environmental safeguards that American manufacturers are bound by. It only makes sense that they should have to pay tariffs for not playing by the same rules as everyone else. That is why the supposedly conservative idea of free trade is anything but. “Free trade” is a one-way street where America plays by the rules and China cheats their way to the top with currency manipulation, patent theft, and unfair labor practices.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions about whether solar panels are the future of American energy production. However, we should all come to agreement that President Biden’s radical catastrophic climate outlook should not be the catalyst for American dependence on foreign imports. “Tariff” is not a dirty word. It is a tool that a strong American leader can use to look out for the needs of our own people. President Biden is clearly not willing to be strong enough to protect our interests.
This post originally appeared at https://www.phyllisschlafly.com/liberalism-and-conservatism/jobs/a-panel-discussion-on-tariffs/