TheChek News Flow

Administration is preparing to announce higher levies on a range of Chinese goods next week

WASHINGTON—The Biden administration is preparing to raise tariffs on clean-energy goods from China in the coming days, with the levy on Chinese electric vehicles set to roughly quadruple, according to people familiar with the matter.

Higher tariffs, which Biden administration officials are preparing to announce on Tuesday, will also hit critical minerals, solar goods and batteries sourced from China, according to the people. The decision comes at the end of a yearslong review of tariffs imposed by former President Donald Trump on roughly $300 billion in goods from China.

Whether to adjust the Trump-era levies divided Biden economic advisers for years, with trade officials pushing for higher duties and others like Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen calling for lowering tariffs on consumer goods. But signs that China was ramping up exports of clean-energy goods prompted broad concern in Washington, where officials are trying to protect a nascent American clean-energy industry from China.

Officials are particularly focused on electric vehicles, and they are expected to raise the tariff rate to roughly 100% from 25%, according to the people. An additional 2.5% duty applies to all automobiles imported into the U.S. The existing tariff has so far effectively barred Chinese electric vehicles, often cheaper than Western-made cars, from the U.S. market. Biden administration officials, automakers and some lawmakers worried that 25% wouldn’t be enough given the scale of Chinese manufacturing.

Bloomberg earlier reported that the administration is planning to announce higher tariffs next week. Administration officials cautioned that the timing of the announcement could change. A White House spokesman declined to comment.

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FIRST ON FOX: A new House Republican bill would send any person charged and convicted for illegal activity on a college campus to Gaza for at least six months.

Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., introduced the bill on Wednesday alongside Reps. Randy Weber, R-Texas, and Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., in response to the ongoing anti-Israel demonstrations on college campuses across the country.

Several of those protests have turned violent, with clashes between police and activists, as well as hundreds of activists being arrested across multiple campuses.

While Ogles’ bill text does not mention Israel or the anti-Israel groups, it specifically targets unlawful activity on college campuses after Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants invaded Israel in a surprise attack that killed over 1,000 people

Those convicted would be forced to serve a minimum six-month community service sentence in Gaza, where Israel is currently waging a brutal campaign to eradicate Hamas and rescue the remaining Israelis that terrorists took hostage in October.

“Students have abandoned their classes to harass other students and disrupt campus-wide activities, including university commencement ceremonies nationwide. Enough is enough,” Ogles told Fox News Digital.

“That’s why I introduced legislation to send any person convicted of unlawful activity on the campus of an American university since October 7th, 2023, to Gaza to complete a minimum of six months of community service.”

Weber added, “If you support a terrorist organization, and you participate in unlawful activity on campuses, you should get a taste of your own medicine. I am going to bet that these pro-Hamas supporters wouldn’t last a day, but let’s give them the opportunity.”

The bill is likely to face uncertain odds in the House, where Republicans hold a razor-thin majority of just one seat. Even if it passed, the Democrat-controlled Senate will almost certainly ignore it.

It is an example, however, of the heightened tensions wracking the U.S. over Israel’s war with Hamas.

The college protests here have garnered bipartisan criticism from virtually all Republicans and a significant number of Democrats, but progressives have continued to show strong support for the students and other activists on campus.

Comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., for example, referring to some Jewish students as “pro-genocide” have earned her a GOP-led censure resolution, filed by Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., on Tuesday.

Her fellow “Squad” member, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., has also been censured for her comments about Israel in the wake of Oct. 7

Agreement worth up to $1.2bn includes plan for combined flu and Covid-19 shots

Sanofi has struck a licensing deal worth up to $1.2bn with Novavax to commercialise the struggling Covid-19 vaccine maker’s coronavirus jab and use the technology to develop its own combined shot with flu.

The partnership strengthens Sanofi, one of the world’s largest vaccine makers by sales, in the post-pandemic Covid-19 jab market, where pharmaceutical groups are increasingly focused on combined shots against two or more infectious diseases.

Under the agreement, Sanofi would lead the sales push of Novavax’s Covid-19 jab from next year in most countries worldwide and have the rights to combine the US biotech’s protein-based vaccine technology with its flu shots and other infectious disease jabs, the companies said on Friday.

Novavax will receive an upfront payment of $500mn in cash and an equity investment, and will stand to receive the remaining $700mn upon the completion of certain regulatory and development milestones.

Sanofi will take a roughly 5 per cent stake in Novavax. Novavax will also benefit from a double-digit percentage of royalties from the sales of its Covid jab as well as any combined shot using its technology, but Sanofi will take the vast majority of revenues.

“We’re excited by the prospect of combining Novavax’s adjuvanted Covid-19 vaccine that has shown high efficacy and favourable tolerability, with our rich portfolio of differentiated flu vaccines that have demonstrated superior protection against flu and its serious complications,” said Jean-François Toussaint, who heads Sanofi’s vaccine research and development.

Touissant said the combined shot would offer patients “enhanced convenience and protection against two serious respiratory viruses”. Sanofi had a Covid-19 booster vaccine approved by the European Medicines Agency in 2022 but it has struggled to make a dent in the market.

The licensing agreement caps a tumultuous period for Novavax, whose market value boomed to more than $40bn at the height of the pandemic, propelled by investor excitement over its Covid shot. But it has since fallen by almost 99 per cent.

The vaccine maker has undertaken a $1.1bn cost-cutting drive in the past year to stave off a possible bankruptcy and has faced pressure from an activist investor for a board shake-up.

Novavax suffered from a series of mis-steps with the launch of its Covid-19 vaccine, which was late to market because of a sluggish approval process. It then faced collapsing demand as governments withdrew from procurement deals.

Novavax’s vaccine, a more traditional protein-based formulation combined with an adjuvant to boost its effectiveness, has been pitched to patients as a counterpoint to mRNA jabs from BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna that have inspired vaccine scepticism over rare side-effects. But sales have lagged.

“Novavax is now in a stronger position to refocus our efforts on leveraging our technology platform and novel adjuvant,” said John Jacobs, Novavax chief executive.

Novavax will still be allowed to press ahead with development of its combined Covid-flu shot, which is set to enter late-stage trials in the second half of this year.