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US Impounds Thousands of German Vehicles Over One Tiny Part Made in China

Geopolitical madness of US sanctions hits Bentley, Porsche and Audi vehicles at U.S. ports over a single part.

VW Under Pressure to Ditch Its China Joint Venture

The Wall Street Journal reports Volkswagen Under Pressure to Ditch Its China Joint Venture

Pressure is mounting on Volkswagen to pull out of a joint venture in the Xinjiang region of China in the latest example of geopolitical tensions colliding with business priorities for Germany’s largest manufacturers.

VW said the U.S. had impounded thousands of its Bentley, Porsche and Audi vehicles at U.S. ports because the cars contained a part made by a Chinese supplier on a sanctions list for using forced labor in Xinjiang.

“One tiny part,” a VW spokesman said, adding that it was in the process of refitting the vehicles and delivering them to dealers. “We really try, but this shows how challenging it is to really know everything that is happening in complex supply chains.”

Last week, the German chemical giant BASF said it would accelerate plans to divest itself of two joint ventures in Xinjiang, citing the market environment, the carbon footprint for the products produced there and news reports that alleged its joint-venture partner was involved in human-rights violations.

This move doesn’t mean BASF is exiting China. On the contrary, it plans to invest up to 10 billion euros, equivalent to around $10.7 billion, in the country by 2030 while reducing its footprint in Germany because of rising energy bills. VW, which made 35% of its sales in China last year, has no plan to reduce its presence in the market.

Paradoxically, China has been a winner of Trump’s trade war,” said Jürgen Matthes, head of international economic policy at the German Economic Institute, an independent think tank. “It has benefited in the form of additional investments while Germany has borne the costs.”

I have been saying for months that companies importing cars into the United States need to know the origin of every component in the vehicle,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), head of the Senate Finance Committee. 

Down to the Gnat’s Ass

The US not tells US corporations they can or cannot do, the US also demands the right to tell the entire rest of the world what it can or cannot do, down to the gnat’s ass, with zero tolerance.

German chemical giant BASF is in the same boat as VW. It will relocate from one region of China to another.

Amusingly, Germany turned to China because inane energy policy in Germany made it cost prohibitive to make things in Germany.

For discussion, please see Germany’s Industrial Superpower Days are Over, a Green Victory?

Trump and Biden, No Difference

In the US, here is no difference between Trump and Biden on sanctions or tariffs.

Both demand the right to tell the world what it can or cannot do. And costs are rising as a direct result.

A law expert friend of mine who has argued cases in the Supreme Court commented “Holy s**t. This is very strange. Generally, an importer can pay a penalty for a part that violates 337.”

337 is in reference to U.S. – Section 337 of Tariff Act 1930.

How China Gets Around US Sanctions on Semiconductors

Yesterday, I commented How China Gets Around US Sanctions on Semiconductors

The US is far ahead of China on technology, but China is gaining ground faster than anyone thought.

The US wanted to restrict China’s access to 7nm chips but now it appears China is making its own 5bn chips, and the smaller the better.

The Incentive to Break Sanctions

China lags the US in technology, but the direct result of sanctions is China now produces its own chips instead of buying them from the US.

On December 29, 2023 I noted How Russia Makes a Mockery of US Sanctions in One Picture

On September 19, 2023, I commented Lesson of the Day: Sanctions Don’t Work Because They Create New Markets

Sanction Irony

The irony in this madness is US sanctions made a winner out of Russia and China, punished US allies, and drove up costs on US corporations and US consumers.

And people think inflationary pressures have been eliminated. What a sorry hoot.

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66 Comments
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Joey Zsazsa
Joey Zsazsa
2 years ago

Nobody in their right state of mind buys German cars anymore

Sentient
Sentient
2 years ago

Germany to America: “Thank you sire, may I have another?”

Robert Wells
Robert Wells
2 years ago

Meanwhile, 75% of the parts in a North Korean missile sold to Russia for use in Ukraine were found to be from US corporations.

Vogelfrei
Vogelfrei
2 years ago

Did VW really earned money in the US in the last decades? I`m not shure.

Maximus Minimus
Maximus Minimus
2 years ago
Reply to  Vogelfrei

Did any of German export champions earn any money in the US in excess of legal expenses? Bayer & Co. included.

Vogelfrei
Vogelfrei
2 years ago

I must think about that… Maybe there is one, or two…

Stuki Moi
Stuki Moi
2 years ago


I have been saying for months that companies importing cars into the United States need to know the origin of every component in the vehicle,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), head of the Senate Finance Committee.

If one is too incompetent to competitively build anything; whether that’d be cars, car parts or anything else; I suppose paying thousands of deadweights on, instead, wasting resources trying to “know the origin of every component in the vehicle”; is one way for the losers to bury their brain challenged ostrich heads in the sand while pretending they are still some form of useful lifeform.

Of course; in the next sentence; the idiots will then complain they can’t compete with those five year planning Chinese manufacturers. Since communist five year planning is such a recipe for maximizing productivity, efficiency and competitiveness and all….

William Jackson
William Jackson
2 years ago

The VW will have to pay the proper lobbyist in DC to grease the skid to get these cars released in the future or Bring them across the Southern border.

Gwp
Gwp
2 years ago

US buys Russian uranium, Chinese rare earths, no questions there on morality or working conditions. But any excuse to disadvantage European industrial competition !

Alex
Alex
2 years ago
Reply to  Gwp

Thanks for voluntarily stopping the import of cheap Russian gas and instead importing expensive LNG from the US. Good doggie! Now roll over and play dead.

Last edited 2 years ago by Alex
Neil
Neil
2 years ago

Lesson of the Day: Sanctions Don’t Work Because They Create New Markets: in evidence, Iran’s thriving military-industrial complex, now manufacturing and exporting state of the art drones, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and AA missiles.

Tortoise
Tortoise
2 years ago

Mike, I think you need to step back and get a clearer picture of what’s going on. The very first article you cited in this post contains factual errors and opinioned statements from Jürgen Matthes, head of international economic policy at the German Economic Institute. Have you bothered to verify his statement that China is “winning” Trump’s trade war? Because this claim is demonstrably untrue. Here’s the facts. Foreign Direct Investment into China has plummeted from $350bn USD in 2020 to $33bn in 2023. That represents a 91% decline. The YoY change for 2023 alone was negative 82%. These are staggering numbers. China FDI is now back to where it was during the 1990s and it’s headed lower. The USA is winning this war and China is melting down into economic paralysis, if not outright collapse.

Longview Economics has the deets:

https://twitter.com/Lvieweconomics/status/1759561740939850151

In light of these facts I would suggest that you take a more skeptical view of the “reporting” from the WSJ and other legacy media outlets. I doubt you are a cheerleader for the global elite, the WEF, and the Davos crowd. Those are the interests that the WSJ serves.

Stuki Moi
Stuki Moi
2 years ago
Reply to  Tortoise

“Foreign Direct Investment into China has plummeted from $350bn USD in 2020 to $33bn in 2023. That represents a 91% decline.”

A 91% decline in handing over real value in exchange for printed up paper attached to idiots who “made money off my home and portfolio and connections to an idiot tribe in D.C.”; is what’s called a massive net gain.

Back in the day, The West had something of value to offer China. Quite a lot, actually. Now, they have at least 91% less to offer. And shrinking.

If there is one category of abject nothings which has done, and is doing, more than any other to flat out destroy value with everyone and everything they touch; it has been/is Fed-theft-and-nothing-but beneficiary Western “investors.” Noone needs them, noone even half competent wants them. The less access they have to anything at all; whether in China or the US; the better off every single competent Chinese and American is and will be.

KGB
KGB
2 years ago

Germans think they can cheat. Think again.

FromBrussels
FromBrussels
2 years ago

it is pretty obvious that the US of A is hellbent on destroying European industries, Germany’s in particular… Say it ain t so !

FromBrussels
FromBrussels
2 years ago
Reply to  FromBrussels

…..we should be grateful though , after all the US saved us from Hitler an now you are even safeguarding us from a Russian invasion and Putin s… ‘weapons of mass destruction’….oh wait.. , that was someone else you saved the world from again…. Oh those emotions of mine , at this very moment I fall on my knees praying with gratitude , my head towards Washington while farting direction Moscow ….FOR EVER GRATEFUL and faithfully yours….

Maximus Minimus
Maximus Minimus
2 years ago
Reply to  FromBrussels

You’ve either seen the light and turned to our savior, or had too many of those Belgian beers which in addition to being expensive taste awful.

FromBrussels
FromBrussels
2 years ago

I am no chauvinist BUT belgian beers are definitely the best in the world, International connoisseurs will confirm this. Expensive ? I buy the very best at 1 or 2 Euro 33 cl bottle in the supermarket, in a bar you pay X 3 or more depending on the poshness of the place ….

Stuki Moi
Stuki Moi
2 years ago
Reply to  FromBrussels

“I am no chauvinist BUT belgian beers are definitely the best in the world”

Often too alcoholic for my preference 🙂

No doubt extremely well made, but these days, there are great beers brewed almost everywhere.

The Average beer in Belgium may well be better than the Average beer anywhere else, since seemingly all Belgians have high standards and won’t put up with bottled plonk just for convenience or to save a buck. But the very best beer from almost anywhere, is so good by now that it’s just down to individual taste.

More controversially: Even wine has been “democratized” in a similar fashion. Perhaps not to quite the same extent; since growing conditions and terroir still plays a slightly bigger role in winemaking. But even there; there has been a massive compression of the quality spread. Macron may still drink better stuff than the average wino; but the difference is very far from what it was even 30 years ago.

Vogelfrei
Vogelfrei
2 years ago
Reply to  FromBrussels

I am not a chauvinist too, but one thing is shure: German beer is the best, because we have the Reinheitsgebot since april 23.1516.

FromBrussels
FromBrussels
2 years ago
Reply to  Vogelfrei

Reinheitsgebot ? Die Belgische Biere sind also unrein ? Lol !

Maximus Minimus
Maximus Minimus
2 years ago
Reply to  FromBrussels

Excuse my bad taste. I only tried Belgian beer once – and never again. It was in a local brew outlet serving Belgian beer of all flavours but plain hops. It was served in small goblet style glasses, and overpriced like nectar for gods.

Last edited 2 years ago by Maximus Minimus
Jojo
Jojo
2 years ago

Beer always tastes awful to me. I’m told it is genetics.

Stuki Moi
Stuki Moi
2 years ago
Reply to  FromBrussels

“it is pretty obvious that the US of A is hellbent on destroying European industries”

Misery loves company.

And kids who can’t, often do get jealous of kids who still can.

FromBrussels
FromBrussels
2 years ago
Reply to  Stuki Moi

KEEP ON PRINTING , you ARE still the reserve currency of the world , for the time being anyway, 200 trillion in debt and future liabilities , and ruthlesssly ticking ain t peanuts !

LoneRanger73
LoneRanger73
2 years ago

The corrupt traitors in DC are very pro-Red China. This is schizophrenic.

Lisa_Hooker
Lisa_Hooker
2 years ago

Volkswagen should consider itself lucky that those US ports didn’t mysteriously explode and send all the cars to the bottom. No one would have been able to figure out who did it.

Alex
Alex
2 years ago

Meanwhile, the US is importing Uranium from Russia. Clearly these sanctions make no sense.

Peace
Peace
2 years ago
Reply to  Alex

In this case, Russia can’t make lots of WMD ( Even though Russia has WMD which can destroy the world ten times )
There are reasons for everything which breaks laws, sanctions, etc.
Reason for genocide in Gaza is self defence.
Let me know if you have problems , I can tell you the reasons.

Bbbbbbbbbb
Bbbbbbbbbb
2 years ago
Reply to  Peace

There is no “genocide” in Gaza.

Not an Economist
Not an Economist
2 years ago
Reply to  Bbbbbbbbbb

And “War is Peace”

Maximus Minimus
Maximus Minimus
2 years ago

Companies must realize that it is risky to do business in the US. VW joint venture partner would welcome if it could get its hands on the rest of the venture for pennies. They don’t need VW anymore like they did in the past.

Jojo
Jojo
2 years ago

So the solution is to not to apply sanctions in the first place, as you claim they aren’t effective and don’t work anyway and just let everyone do whatever they want as in laissez faire? It would seem that in that world, the only way to stop someone from doing something would be to intervene militarily then. And I know you don’t like that solution either.

Do you see the illogic of your statement here?

HMK
HMK
2 years ago
Reply to  Jojo

No, unless you are a tool of the mic. propaganda machine.

FromBrussels
FromBrussels
2 years ago
Reply to  Jojo

Right, sanctions on the US of A are long overdue then !

RonJ
RonJ
2 years ago

“The US not tells US corporations they can or cannot do, the US also demands the right to tell the entire rest of the world what it can or cannot do, down to the gnat’s ass, with zero tolerance.”

That sounds like dictatorship, not democracy.

matt3
matt3
2 years ago

The Germans are still weak from the sins of WW2. They just take whatever crappy hand the US gives them. Stop cheap energy from Russia – ok. Blow up Nordstream and the Germans bend over and take it again. Invaded by migrants that rape your women, piss on your traditions and collect welfare and still they do nothing. They are pathetic.

Maximus Minimus
Maximus Minimus
2 years ago
Reply to  matt3

They are waking up, but the indoctrination by the state media is very strong.

Vogelfrei
Vogelfrei
2 years ago

Also true. But the waking-up is probably too late.

Not an Economist
Not an Economist
2 years ago
Reply to  matt3

Rape their women and piss on their traditions? Says someone who hasn’t been to Germany. It’s the migrants who actually face a lot of hostility from Germans. Doesn’t mean open borders is a good plan, but no need to resort to hyperbole.

Vogelfrei
Vogelfrei
2 years ago

Not true.

Vogelfrei
Vogelfrei
2 years ago
Reply to  matt3

All true.

Traveller
Traveller
2 years ago

This is nonsense . . . This has nothing to do with a Part from China . . . and everything to do with keeping Pressure on Germany so that they will continue to support Ukraine and NATO because the German Government is on its way out . . . and not soon enough . . . they have sold out their people and their country . . . this will not end well . . .

Stu
Stu
2 years ago
Reply to  Traveller

They have been selling out for decades. The problem is, that they just got caught. The sunlight of the NG crisis, and handling of their energy needs has driven this administration into the ground.
They played them to be dumb, and they have been for a few decades, but not anymore. The illegal immigration nightmare of non-assimilation, the loss of energy requirements (from an adversary), and no back up plan. The shutting down, of the only energy source the Country had, in Nuclear Energy.

People notice when there paychecks shrink overnight, they are cold and hungry, and things are looking bleak…

Vogelfrei
Vogelfrei
2 years ago
Reply to  Stu

New parties are establishing. Old parties are collapsing. Public-opinion polls show, that people are feeling, that they cant use their right of free speech any more. Many do no longer believe the messages of the state media, but others still do. The government tries to abolish freedom and democracy in these days. Elections have been manipulated. Germany has reached a crossroad. But still there seems to be a majority who is behind the old parties and thats because of the nazi-past of the country. People are traumatized by that. And thats the reason why the country abrogates itself. Its horrible.

Last edited 2 years ago by Vogelfrei
Sunriver
Sunriver
2 years ago

Ah yes, you found inflation!

Dr Funkenstein
Dr Funkenstein
2 years ago

They can do what they want. They just can’t sell their blood-stained products made by tyrants here. The Germans know nothing..NOTHING! When has the world heard this before?

Micheal Engel
Micheal Engel
2 years ago

CBS 60 min : Audi 5000 sudden acceleration blocked VW for decades.

Stu
Stu
2 years ago

Someone is not playing by the rules they were given. They are making a deal with someone they are not supposed to, or they changed the way they deal with immigration, or they said they like Trump. Maybe all of the above? Germany is in a very bad situation right now, as a Country…

Counter
Counter
2 years ago

About Germany and energy policy. When I was young, I remember sitting in big lines for gas in the 70s. I thought the shortage of oil and inflation was the result of a war and its subsequent energy embargo.

Washington’s “development economics” is actually designed to prevent development

 “Nixon shock”

When the US rescinded its promise to allow the exchange of US dollars into gold at a set exchange rate, the dollar fell and to maintain military hegemony, US leaders felt this fall had to be stopped. The solution was found in the importing needs of countries like Germany and Japan: most of their energy was imported. The US dollar was thus transformed from the gold-backed dollar into the oil-backed dollar, known as the “petro-dollar”.

US troops were deployed in the largest oil producing country, Saudi Arabia, and a deal was made that its government and royal family would be supported by the US, in exchange for the promise to sell oil only against the US dollar, and invest 80% of the resulting abundance in US dollar reserves in Saudi Arabia back into US Treasuries, thus funding the government budget deficit, and with it, the US foreign wars.

Germany and Japan now needed US dollars, in order to be able to buy the energy needed to operate their economies. Of course, some alternatives were explored, namely Germany gradually began to import gas from the Soviet Union, which always delivered reliably.

The other step to underpin the US dollar was to engineer a massive hike in the oil price, which would essentially transfer vast resources from manufacturing powerhouses Germany and Japan to Saudi Arabia and the United States. For this, Henry Kissinger had to arm-twist the Saudis to quadruple the oil price, which happened in January 1974. To divert the attention from the true sequence and cause of these events, as outlined here, and instead spread the narrative that the driving force of events was the OPEC oil embargo, central banks in the sphere of influence of the Federal Reserve, which included the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and the Bundesbank, had simultaneously set out in 1971 and 1972 to massively expand the money supply by encouraging a grotesque expansion in bank credit, for property speculation and consumption.

This caused the inflation of the 1970s, despite the dominant official narrative that the inflation was the result of a war and its subsequent energy embargo. (Like Henry Kissinger’s visit to China, also this scenario has recurred half a century later: it was not the Russian military operation to defend the newly formed Republics on Ukraine’s borders that caused the inflation of 2021 and 2022, but the massive expansion in bank credit, coordinated by the Federal Reserve, Bank of England and ECB and implemented in March 2020).

As a result, US economic and political dominance continued in the 1970s. Meanwhile, the Bretton Woods institutions of the IMF and the World Bank had been used to manage what has been billed as a de-colonisation and movement towards independence of many countries and peoples across the globe: The British, US, French, Belgian and Dutch overseas colonial empires faced increasing demands by locals for political independence. Having argued that their fight in the second world war against Germany was for freedom and democracy, it was now difficult for these countries to delay decolonisation for the majority of the population in the world living in developing countries that were under their direct control.

We are told by modern English-language textbooks in “Development Economics” that it was this de-colonialisation that created a new academic discipline taught at their universities, called “Development Economics”. The development economics textbooks point out that this discipline did not exist until the 1950s and 1960s and it was created, because an increasing number of former colonies were becoming independent.

But development economics was not created by the leading thinkers of those newly independent countries! Instead, it was created by British and US economists.

Scooot
Scooot
2 years ago
Reply to  Counter

You should listen to “The Rest is History 1974” podcast by Tom Holland & Dominic Sandbrook, and you’d realise the UK Government was far too daft to become involved in such an elaborate plot. It’s very entertaining.

Counter
Counter
2 years ago
Reply to  Scooot

I will check it out, thanks

Vogelfrei
Vogelfrei
2 years ago
Reply to  Counter

Exellent overview to the economic history of the last decades.

Ockham's Razor
Ockham’s Razor
2 years ago

USA is pushing Germany in Russia’s and China’s arms with sanctions or LNG exports ban.Dangerous game.
Mussolini was a foe of Hitler and had good relations with Lomdon, but Great Britain imposed sanctions on italians for human rights affairs in Africa (yes, the colonial Britain, what a joke) In a few years, italian submarines were sinking british vessels.

Eighthman
Eighthman
2 years ago

The outcome of being an obsequious and cowardly vassal. France obeyed on Mistral production. Ukraine is helping to extinct their young male population and their whole nation thereby in obeying Uncle Sam. The British are compliant puppy dogs who didn’t get rewarded with free trade status after Brexit. Scholz was treated like a nobody with nothing to say by some Senators a while back, on stage. Stand on your feet or die on your knees, EU. As the assistant secretary of state once said,”F**k the EU”.

Vogelfrei
Vogelfrei
2 years ago
Reply to  Eighthman

Yes.

Neal
Neal
2 years ago

So sanctioning Russian energy exports to Germany has pushed BASF to move production to China? And China will then need to buy more energy from Russia to satisfy demand. Double facepalm stupid by the West.

Vogelfrei
Vogelfrei
2 years ago
Reply to  Neal

You got it. But, “the West”, what is it, I have forgotten?

steve
steve
2 years ago

What tiny little part? Oh, the motor.

Neal
Neal
2 years ago
Reply to  Mike Shedlock

Sounds like the G spot

Vogelfrei
Vogelfrei
2 years ago
Reply to  Mike Shedlock

It`s a control unit that regulates the communication of several devices.

Counter
Counter
2 years ago
Reply to  steve

My mustang transmission was made in China. I did not realize this when I bought it

Counter
Counter
2 years ago
Reply to  Counter

Xinjiang is home to numerous factories that supply multinational companies, including big-name Western brands.

D. Heartland
D. Heartland
2 years ago

WILL the rest of the Western World finally grow some balls and tell America it can SHOVE IT. These sanctions drive up an ALREADY HUGE INFLATION factor!

WTF???????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jchb
Jchb
2 years ago

Sanctions are stupid but sadly so, in general, is the voting public.

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