China sells more electric cars than any other country. The EU believes that this distorts international prices and has announced consequences. Beijing and European car manufacturers are not happy about this at all.
The EU Commission is threatening high provisional punitive tariffs on certain electric cars from China. Models from manufacturers BYD, Geely and SAIC are affected, the EU Commission announced on Wednesday. An import tariff of 17.4 percent will apply to BYD, 20 percent to Geely and 38.1 percent to Volkswagen’s state-owned Chinese partner group SAIC, reported the Reuters news agency.
The Commission justified the move by saying that electric car imports from China were damaging the European car industry. It is following the example of the USA, which recently quadrupled its tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles to 100 percent. However, European car manufacturers have clearly spoken out against the tariffs and fear retaliatory measures in their most important single market, China.
According to the information, whether manufacturers actually have to pay the tariffs of up to 38.1 percent depends on whether another solution can be found with China. The country has until July 4th. The EU granted the grace period under German pressure.
China threatens EU with punitive tariffs
The Chinese government had previously warned the EU against increasing import tariffs on electric cars. “Ultimately, this would harm the European Union’s own interests,” said a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Beijing on Wednesday. The EU Commission’s ongoing anti-subsidy investigation is “protectionism” and is apparently intended to provide an “excuse” for the introduction of protective tariffs.
Note: This post has been updated.
Source: Stern
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