Chinese trade group slams EU’s imminent import hike on EVs

A group representing Chinese companies on Tuesday said the European Commission’s plan to slap import duties of up to 38% on Chinese electric cars was “unfair” and would worsen trade tensions.

The Chinese Chamber of Commerce to the EU (CCCEU) “expresses its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to the EC’s protectionist approach,” the group said in a statement.

“The EC’s unfair use of trade tools to hinder free trade in electric vehicles, along with this protectionist approach, will ultimately weaken the resilience of the European electric vehicle industry,” the group said.

“It will exacerbate trade tensions between China and the EU, sending a profoundly negative signal to global cooperation and green development,” it warned.

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Brussels last month slapped Chinese EVs with hefty provisional tariffs of up to 38%, on top of current duties of 10%, after an anti-subsidy probe found they were unfairly undermining European rivals.

On Tuesday the commission released a draft plan to make those tariffs definitive, at slightly revised rates, subject to input from interested parties by end-August, and to approval by EU member states by end-October.

A European Commission official said the EU executive remained “open” to resolving the dispute without resorting to tariffs, but that the ball was in China’s camp to offer an alternative solution.

“The EU’s preliminary ruling lacks a factual and legal basis, seriously violates WTO rules, and undermines the overall situation of global co-operation in addressing climate change,” a spokesperson for China’s commerce ministry said in a statement earlier this month.

“We urge the EU to immediately correct its wrong practices and jointly maintain the stability of China-EU economic and trade cooperation as well as EV industrial and supply chains.”

In a subsequent rebuttal, an EU spokesperson told AFP, “The EU is carefully studying all the details of this request and will react to the Chinese authorities in due course according to the WTO procedures”.

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