Despite lofty US tariffs on Chinese automakers, US carmakers are already going head-to-head with Chinese producers in South American and European markets. Stella Li, BYD (BYDDY) Executive VP, claims that trade restrictions won't help US carmakers, as only technological investment will determine "the final winner." Tesla's (TSLA) Elon Musk claims, however, that trade restrictions keep US automakers from being "demolished." Robinson Meyer, Heatmap Founding Executive Editor, joins Yahoo Finance to discuss the landscape of the EV market and the competition between the US market and Chinese automakers. Meyer explains that tariffs will continue to be a stumbling block for regulators and auto suppliers: "What we're seeing is that auto markets, especially European auto markets, are having a hard time figuring out exactly how to craft trade protections that on the one hand, keep this deluge of very cheap cars from China out of their domestic markets, protecting their local automakers and on the other hand... that keep local automakers, either domestic automakers, whether that's Volkswagen (VOW.DE) or Peugeot (STLA) in Europe, or Ford (F) and GM (GM) in the US, competitive and at the cutting edge of vehicle technology. I don't think any company or country has solved this problem yet but I think this is a major policy question going forward, specifically for the United States and Europe." For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live. Editor's note: This article was written by Nicholas Jacobino
