How U.S.-China trade tensions now extend to ... golf carts

Natnan Srisuwan

Instead of rolling down the fairway after a striped drive, golf carts have swerved into the middle of America’s trade tensions with China.

With Chinese-based companies importing golf carts that some believe are cheaply made and undervalued, domestic United States brands have faced increasingly difficult paths toward fairly competing. While U.S.-based Club Car and E-Z-GO’s cheapest listed golf carts online are $9,475 and $8,374, respectively, Ali Express, an online retail service based in China, offers golf carts that can be found for under $1,000.

That disadvantage, however, could be erased with newly announced tariffs by the International Trade Commission, with Chinese golf cart companies facing tariffs that range from 31 percent to 679 percent.

The regular golfer, of course, doesn’t pay the cost for a golf cart each time they play a round. Instead, they’re typically charged a cart fee and the required greens fee to play—but both could see increases if clubs have to pay more than they’re accustomed to for golf carts.

Off the course, Georgia Rebublican Congressman Rick Allen—whose district includes Augusta and is home to Club Car and E‑Z‑GO—sees this as a broader victory in America’s effort to reduce dependence on Chinese goods.

“All I can do is look historically at what the Chinese have done,” Allen said, “and what they do is they go in, the government dumps steel or whatever in this country, golf carts, you name it. They put the competition out of business. And then you’re solely dependent on the Chinese for the problem.”

Once Chinese-imported golf carts began arriving in the U.S., Allen said they grabbed market share at an alarming rate, threatening the viability of domestic manufacturers. This prompted him to send a letter to the Office of the United States Trade Representative on June 28, 2024, his first action toward trying to protect Club Car and E-Z-Go, who held a combined 37-percent share of the golf cart industry in 2024, according to Global Market Insights. China, meantime, accounted for 99 percent of the $703 million worth of fully assembled golf cart imports to the U.S. in 2024, according to ImportGenius.

More than a year later, the International Trade Commission ruled that domestic U.S. producers have been materially injured by unfairly traded imports of Chinese Low Speed Personal Transportation Vehicles (LSPTVs), which include golf carts, personal transporation and light utility vehicles. As a result, antidumping duties—a tariff imposed on foreign imports believed to be priced below fair market value—will be imposed at rates ranging from 119 percent to 478 percent. Countervailing duties—tariffs to counteract foreign government subsidies to companies—will be levied at rates between 31 percent and 679 percent.

Goodstorie

How U.S.-China trade tensions now extend to … golf carts

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