U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Wednesday she intends to warn China about the negative effects of Beijing's subsidies for its clean energy industries, including solar panels and electric vehicles (EVs), during a visit to the country.
"I intend to talk to the Chinese when I visit about overcapacity in some of these industries, and make sure that they understand the undesirable impact that this is having - flooding the market with cheap goods - on the United States but also in many of our closest allies," Yellen told MSNBC in a live interview.
Yellen is in the state of Georgia to visit a Suniva solar cell manufacturing plant that closed in 2017 due to competition from cheaper, subsidized solar panels from China, but which is now reopening because of anticipated demand fueled by tax credits for U.S.-made clean energy technology in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
In excerpts of remarks to be delivered at the factory, Yellen said she planned to raise concerns that China is now overproducing EVs and lithium-ion batteries in the same way that it built too much capacity to make steel and aluminum, distorting global markets and hurting jobs in other industrial and developing economies.
Politico has reported that Yellen will travel to China in April. The Treasury has declined to confirm her travel plans.
"I will convey my belief that excess capacity poses risks not only to American workers and firms and to the global economy, but also productivity and growth in the Chinese economy, as China itself acknowledged in its National People's Congress this month," Yellen said. "And I will press my Chinese counterparts to take necessary steps to address this issue."
