Chinese industry body objects to EU’s EV tariff plan, calls for balanced solution

The China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products on Wednesday voiced its strong objection to the European Commission’s plan to slap tariffs of up to 36.3 percent on imports of Chinese electric vehicles (EVs).

In a statement, the industry body said that the commission’s anti-subsidy probe into Chinese EVs did not originate from an EU industry complaint, lacked transparency, and failed to provide an objective analysis of damage to the EU industry.

The erroneous decisions disclosed in the commission’s draft plan to levy definitive duties on Chinese EVs lacked objectivity and fairness, and a tendency toward preset conclusions was very obvious, it said.

On Tuesday, the commission published a draft plan to make the tariffs definitive, at slightly revised rates, subject to approval by EU member states. This came after it announced extra provisional tariffs of up to 37.6 percent on Chinese EV makers in July. It launched its anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese EVs in October 2023.

China has, with the utmost sincerity, undertaken multiple rounds of technical consultation with the European side since the commission announced it would impose provisional additional duties last month, the chamber statement said.

Despite these efforts, the chamber said that the European side has ignored the facts and the anti-subsidy rules of the WTO and the EU. This will disrupt the global automotive industrial chain and hinder the realization of the global green and sustainable development goals, the statement said.

It strongly urged the European Commission to proceed in light of the overall interests of China-EU cooperation, work in sync with China, and reach a balanced solution.

Reference Link:- https://english.news.cn/20240821/9ca75b32d4c9462b89d3445fe6c2352d/c.html

Prof. Engr. Zamir Ahmed Awan Founder & Chair, Global Silk Route Research Alliance

Zamir Ahmed Awan is the founder and Chair of the Global Silk Route Research Alliance, a think tank in Islamabad. He studied engineering at Shanghai University in the 1980s, and years later he went back to China as Pakistan's science counsellor in Beijing, from 2010 until 2016, working on science and higher education cooperation between the two countries.…

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