New Progress in EU anti-subsidy case against Chinese electric vehicles. The European Union is scheduled to vote Oct. 4 on whether to impose tariffs on Chinese electric cars after a delay, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. China and the EU are in close consultation in Brussels to find an alternative to tariffs. Experts interviewed by the Global Times said the EU considers this china policy to be crucial and the consultations show that China and the EU are committed to resolving trade disputes through communication and consultation.
File Photo: A Sign 2024 the BYD Company service center in Berlin, Germany, June 18,2010.
Behind the postponement of the date
It has been almost a year since the European Commission opened an anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese electric cars last October. In July, the commission imposed provisional countervailing duties on imports of all-electric cars from China. The commission was due to call a vote on September 25 among its 27 member states on whether to extend the current temporary tariffs to permanent ones for at least five years. EU countries have now received the draft.
Recently, Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China Minister Wang Wentao went to Europe to discuss the anti-subsidy case with the EU. German“Investment weekly” 28 quoted sources as saying that the vote will be postponed to October 4, but may still change. The vote was delayed slightly as the team was negotiating with China to find a friendly solution and avoid the new tax.
“This reflects the ambivalence and ambivalence within the EU,” Sun Xiaohong, secretary-general of the Automotive Internationalization Committee of the China Chamber of Commerce for the import and export of mechanical and electrical products, told the global times on the 28th, the delay shows that the EU wants to negotiate a satisfactory outcome.
People familiar with the matter said the European Union is working to add a clause to the draft so that negotiations can also take place after the vote, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. This means that even if a vote is passed, the content of the regulations can be adjusted in subsequent negotiations“To a level acceptable to both sides,” sun said.
On the 28th, Liang Huaixin, a researcher at the Beijing University of International Business and Economics National Security and Governance Institute, told the Global Times that, this reflects two realities: on the one hand, the difficulty of policy coordination among EU countries on this issue, and the obvious differences in the demands of the parties; on the other hand, eU countries still see China policy in this area as critical and need to form a unified voice at the EU level.
There are different voices within the EU
Under the EU procedure, if 15 member states, or 65 per cent of the EU’s population, vote against the duties, the plan will be put on hold. Otherwise the EU will impose tariffs ranging from 7.8 per cent to 35.3 per cent on Chinese EV imports, on top of the 10 per cent tariff on standard cars.
The Global Times noted that the EU is divided over whether to impose tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. Countries like Germany and Spain have warned against imposing tariffs that could spark a“Trade war,” Bloomberg said. But countries such as Italy and Denmark support it.
Robert Harbeck, the German economy minister, said in Berlin on Monday that he was not in favour of a countervailing duty because of concerns about the ensuing dispute. Hungarian foreign minister Sialdo 24, said Hungary opposed to the European Union to impose punitive tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles approach. ‘The clear interest of the EU is to develop cooperation with China, not to aggravate each other’s conflicts, ‘ he said. Sánchez, the Spanish Prime Minister, also said on the 11th that the EU should reconsider plans to impose tariffs on Chinese electric cars.
Liang Huaixin told reporters that the reason for the different voices within the EU at this stage is that the scale of the electric vehicle industry and the influence of domestic green policies vary from country to country, especially in this round of anti-globalization thoughts, in some European countries, the political shift to the right is more obvious. “So when it comes to electric cars in China, it’s really a reflection of deep differences within European countries in terms of industrial foundations, political thinking and so on.”
What are the possible implications of imposing tariffs?
European business leaders have warned of the consequences of a series of forthcoming EU legislation that could lead to“Decoupling” of parts of the supply chain, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported. The report quoted analysts as saying the conflicts were“Symptoms of a deeper disease” linked to a widening gap in the global trading system.
“On the one hand, there will be a clear impact on China-eu economic and trade relations, with the auto industry bearing the brunt of the impact. On the other hand, economic and trade fluctuations will also have a counter-effect on china-eu political relations, creating a series of uncertainties,” Liang said.
As for the auto industry, the global times noted that the EU is facing challenges in its green transition. Many analysts believe that interfering with economic and trade cooperation with China will hinder this process. European Union registrations of all-electric vehicles fell 43.9 percent in August, according to the Association of European automobile manufacturers, and its overall market share slipped to 14.4 percent from 21 percent a year earlier, Euronews reported recently. This is the fourth straight month of decline this year. The industry is calling on policymakers to help, saying that without action, the transition will not only be costly for carmakers but will also affect the economy itself and endanger the EU’s zero-emissions target.
Sun Xiaohong said that the current European new energy vehicle sales and development trends are not optimistic. Europe as a whole is wavering on the development of new energy vehicles and climate policy, and tariffs could further undermine their electrification and green development.
“The EU only has a climate policy but no new energy vehicle industry policy, which makes the industry lack momentum,” sun said, eU battery and waste battery law, key raw materials law and other relevant policies are“Piecemeal”, lack of systematic, practical and implementation of the details, so even if the EU put up high tariff walls to protect domestic enterprises, from the point of view of the automotive industry chain, the EU has not enough competitiveness.