The Chinese government is hoping for a negotiated solution to the dispute with European Union (EU) about possible punitive tariffs Electric cars. The EU Commission should end its ongoing investigation into this, as the Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday in Beijing. Punitive tariffs are “unreasonable” and do not correspond to international rules. Economic and trade policy problems should be resolved through consultations, emphasized a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce.
The decision concerns the question of whether the EU Commission will impose anti-dumping duties on Chinese electric cars and thus follow the example of the USA follows. Punitive tariffs there are set to rise to 100 percent from August. There is an accusation that… China gives its manufacturers a competitive advantage through high subsidies.
Puzzles about the announcement of the customs decision
It is still unclear when the EU will announce its possible punitive tariffs on Chinese electric cars. Officially, the European Commission is leaving the date for a decision open. There is still no exact time when a decision will be announced, said EU Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis (52) in Brussels on Thursday.
However, according to an insider, the Commission is postponing its decision until the day after the European elections. The new deadline is June 10, a person familiar with the project told Reuters. The change is presumably due to a technical problem with the relevant document. The mirror, who first reported it
, had written that the delay was aimed at keeping the issue out of the election campaign.
At the beginning of October, the Commission officially launched an investigation into whether electric cars in China benefit from subsidies that distort competition. According to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (65), the price of these cars is artificially depressed by high government subsidies and the market is thus distorted.
Dombrovskis stressed that interim measures must be applied within nine months of the start of the investigation. Such measures may include punitive tariffs.
The decision was actually announced by June 5th. The European Parliament elections will take place from June 6th to 9th. A spokesman for the EU Commission said in response to the reports that the June 10 date had not been confirmed.
The tariff plans have met with criticism in the auto industry. So had Stellantis-Chief Carlos Tavares (65) described the project as a “trap” in a Reuters interview. It therefore does not prevent the necessary adaptation of Western car manufacturers to the competition from China and only encourages it inflation high. According to Tavares, electric car manufacturers from China currently have a cost advantage of 30 percent.
If you want to face the competition and offset the cost advantage, that will have consequences for society – and the governments in Europe do not want to face that at the moment.
Also BMW-Boss Oliver Zipse (60) rejects tariffs and pointed out that the majority of electric cars imported from China are produced by Western manufacturers. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (65) is also negative about EU tariffs. If they come, China is expected to respond with countermeasures.