The Fight Over Who Gets Shut Out

• Sponsor Bernie Moreno says Mercedes-Benz won't be banned, but talks on how to protect it are still open.
• Volvo, Aston Martin and Lotus remain exposed because Geely owns or backs them.
• Rand Paul, the lone holdout, says he'll step aside if Mercedes comes out of the bill.

By Samuel López | USA Herald

WASHINGTON — The Senate's push to bar Chinese-owned carmakers just ran into a problem shaped like a three-pointed star.

Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno, one of the bill's two chief sponsors, said Tuesday that Mercedes-Benz will not be banned from selling cars in America, but talks are still under way to make sure that stays true. "What we're not going to do, obviously, is ban Mercedes-Benz vehicles in America," he said.

Here's the catch. The bill the Senate Commerce Committee approved in July would bar any company with more than 15% Chinese ownership from selling vehicles in the US. Mercedes-Benz has nearly 20% passive ownership from Chinese entities. On paper, the German automaker is over the line. Moreno himself questioned whether Mercedes could get down to 15% without wrecking its own business.

Mercedes isn't the only name in the room. Moreno said Volvo Cars, majority owned by China's Geely Holding, is part of the discussions too, and that several options are on the table to keep it selling here. Then came the less comforting part. Aston Martin, 17% owned by Geely, and Britain's Lotus, which is majority owned by Geely, could both be barred under the bill, he acknowledged. Nobody has promised those two a rescue.

The politics are simple, and lopsided. Moreno wants fast-track approval this week, before the Senate leaves until November. Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin, the bill's other chief sponsor, said last week that every Democrat backs moving ahead and that only Paul objects, putting her understanding of the tally at 99 to 1. Paul told Reuters the bill is an unfair attack on Mercedes-Benz and that a bill shouldn't go after one company directly. His terms are plain: take Mercedes out, and he won't stand in the way.

That makes Moreno's Mercedes pledge more than a reassurance to a German automaker. It reads like an opening payment to one stubborn senator. Fast-track routes tend to hand a single objector a veto, which is how a 99-to-1 bill can still stall.

There's a legal wrinkle, too. A fixed percentage is easy to write and clumsy to apply. A 20% passive stake is not control. The Biden administration's early 2025 regulation, which effectively shut Chinese automakers out of selling or building passenger vehicles here, rested on a different worry: that the vehicles could send sensitive driver data to China. The bill's trigger is ownership math, not data flow. Anyone who has read enough statutes knows how that ends. Exceptions, grandfathering, or a carve-out written so narrowly it never names the company it saves.

Why legislate at all? Because rules written by one administration can be rewritten by the next, and a president's offhand remarks can rattle an entire industry. President Donald Trump told Fox News earlier this month that he would accept Chinese car companies building cars in the US. Automakers were alarmed. Along with suppliers and dealers, they have urged him to hold the line against Chinese brands selling, importing or manufacturing vehicles on American soil. A statute doesn't bend to a TV interview. That's why the House version has topped 100 co-sponsors, and why automakers and legislative aides are aiming for full passage this year. Washington already keeps tariffs above 100% on Chinese electric vehicles.

Beijing, for its part, has pushed back on earlier proposals. Its foreign ministry has urged the US to respect market economy principles and fair competition, branding those moves as unfair pressure. It argues Chinese cars sell well around the world because of technological innovation, shaped by a fiercely competitive home market.

Mercedes-Benz did not immediately comment.

The calendar may matter as much as any carve-out. If Moreno can't close a deal with Paul this week, the bill waits until November, and so does everyone on the list.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Samuel López is a reporter and news correspondent for USA Herald, reporting for the publication since 2022. A seasoned legal professional with more than two decades of experience in the legal and insurance sectors, López has spent his career analyzing state and federal litigation and working through complex legal matters. That background shapes how he reads legislation like the Chinese vehicle bill, where one ownership threshold, one drafting choice or one carve-out can decide which companies stay in the US market and which don't.

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