President Joe Biden has the power to overturn the recent U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) decision in a trade dispute involving the importation and sale of certain lithium-ion batteries, battery cells, battery modules, and battery packs, which would do significant damage to United States interests in growing a domestic battery manufacturing capacity — and he should exercise it in order to protect American jobs that are now at stake.
SK Innovation, a South Korean company, is building a vehicle battery manufacturing plant in the state of Georgia which would employ 2,600 Georgians by the beginning of 2024 as they manufacture specially designed electric batteries for the new Ford EV F-150 truck and the Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tennessee electric vehicle manufacturing plant.
SK Innovation will also manufacture a large percentage of batteries available on the open market, manufacturing capacity that is sorely needed today. When fully complete, SK Innovation’s Georgia battery plant is expected to produce as many as 330,000 batteries that can be used for electric vehicles and residential stationary storage (ESS).
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