On the afternoon of April 2nd local time, President Trump of the United States announced at the White House the implementation of "reciprocal tariff" measures against trade partners. According to the White House statement, the 10% "benchmark tariff" will take effect at 00:01 Eastern Time on April 5th, and the higher "reciprocal tariff" targeting specific countries will come into force at 00:01 on April 9th.
The chart displayed by Trump shows that the U.S. will impose a 34% reciprocal tariff on Chinese goods. The current tariff structure for energy storage cells exported from China to the U.S. is as follows:
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Basic tariff: 3.4%
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Section 301 tariff: 7.5%
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General tariff on China: 20%
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New reciprocal tariff: 34%
After the reciprocal tariff takes effect, considering all the tariff policies, the combined tariff rate for energy storage cells will reach:
3.4% basic tariff + 7.5% Section 301 tariff + 20% general tariff + 34% reciprocal tariff = 64.9%
According to the policy adjustment schedule, after the new policy of the Biden administration, which increases the Section 301 tariff from 7.5% to 25%, takes effect on January 1, 2026, the tariff on energy storage cells will rise to:
3.4% basic tariff + 25% Section 301 tariff + 20% general tariff + 34% reciprocal tariff = 82.4%.
It should be particularly noted that although the prices of cell raw materials in the U.S. will also rise in tandem with the tariff policy, the cost advantage of Chinese cell exports will be significantly weakened.
SMM New Energy Industry Research Department
Cong Wang 021-51666838
Xiaodan Yu 021-20707870
Rui Ma 021-51595780
Disheng Feng 021-51666714
Yujun Liu 021-20707895
Yanlin Lü 021-20707875
Zhicheng Zhou 021-51666711
Haohan Zhang 021-51666752
Zihan Wang 021-51666914
Xiaoxuan Ren 021-20707866
Jie Wang 021-51595902
Yang Xu 021-51666760
Boling Chen 021-51666836
