This week, Beijing handed President Donald Trump a small victory. The US Soybean Export Council revealed that China is poised to purchase more than 1.5m tonnes of American soyabeans, the first big import since the trade war escalated in July. The Chinese government also promised to cut tariffs on US auto imports to 15 per cent, after raising these from 25 to 40 per cent earlier this year. “Very productive conversations going on with China!” Mr Trump duly tweeted, with pride.
It makes for good “Make America Great Again” rhetoric. But there is a catch: though American farmers benefit from soyabean sales, the real winners from the auto “victory” are not actually US-owned carmakers. Detroit giants such as Ford do sell cars from American-based factories to China, along with Tesla. But China imports just 10 per cent of its cars from the US, because American auto groups such as Ford have moved their production there in recent years (and Tesla is planning a new factory in Shanghai).
Moreover, about two-thirds of the 270,000-odd so-called American cars that were sold to China in 2017 were made by German-owned groups. The biggest sales, for example, came from BMW’s factory in Spartanburg, South Carolina (which is its largest production facility in the world), while sales from Daimler’s Alabama plant were in second place.