The European Commission is pushing ahead with the imposition of special tariffs on imports of electric cars from China despite ongoing negotiations with the Chinese government. However, she wants to adjust the rates of the temporary special tariffs imposed at the beginning of July. Tesla in particular and, to a lesser extent, the German manufacturers BMW and Volkswagen benefit from this. The Commission proposed this based on the final result of the anti-subsidy investigation launched in 2023, which it presented on Tuesday. In addition, manufacturers should now be able to continue to import their electric cars without special tariffs until the final tariffs are imposed in the fall. They will then receive back the bank guarantees that they have had to deposit since July in the amount of the provisional tariffs. The Commission wants to use the special tariffs to enforce fair competition conditions. The tariffs are intended to offset the subsidies China provides to automakers from raw material extraction to shipping. The Commission said that negotiations with China were continuing on a technical and political level. The prerequisite for an amicable agreement is that the danger posed by cars from China to EU manufacturers is averted. The tariff rates envisaged by the Commission for most manufacturers are now between 17.0 percent and 36.3 percent. This is slightly less than the provisional tariffs. The reason is technical corrections. The decisive factor for the level of tariffs is what subsidies the manufacturers received from the Chinese state and whether they cooperated with the Commission in the investigation. The tariffs are in addition to the general tariff rate of 10 percent that the EU levies on almost all car imports. 9 percent for TeslaTesla is the only manufacturer to pay significantly less. The company was originally supposed to pay the average rate for cooperating companies, which is now 21.3 percent. Now only 9 percent is planned. An individual examination of the subsidies for Tesla showed that it received noticeably less aid compared to the Chinese companies BYD, Geely and SAIC, which were also individually examined, the commission said. This is mainly because Tesla does not finance itself in China. However, it benefited from cheap batteries and building land. Tesla accounts for a quarter to a third of European imports of electric cars manufactured in China. What is new is that the joint ventures founded by BMW and VW with Chinese companies are classified as cooperative companies. This means you only have to pay a rate of 21.3 percent instead of the initially planned maximum rate. The Commission justifies this by saying that both joint ventures have only been introducing electric cars into the EU for a relatively short time. At BMW it’s about the Mini and at VW it’s about the Cupra Tavascan. More on the topic The tariffs should come into force at the end of October at the latest. They would then normally be valid for five years. The prerequisite is that the member states agree to this. You can still stop the imposition of the special tariffs, but to do so you need a qualified majority of 15 states, which together represent more than 65 percent of the EU population. After the announcement in July, it was not possible for the Commission to forgo collecting the temporary special tariffs expect. She justifies this by saying that the import of electric cars, which are manufactured in China at a heavily subsidized rate, poses a danger to EU manufacturers. But there are still no concrete consequences. Therefore, the provisional duties could not be collected without violating commercial law.
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