The European Commission plans to introduce a tariff of up to 38% on Chinese electric cars

"On Wednesday, the European Commission (EC) announced that it will impose a temporary duty of up to 38.1% on Chinese electric cars imported into the EU. At the time, China threatened that tariffs on the import of Chinese electric cars would harm the interests of Europe itself, and condemned what it called Community protectionism.

 

 

 

Reuters reports that BYD's electric cars will face a 17.4% tariff, Geely will face a 20% tariff and SAIC will face a 38.1% tariff. Other companies cooperating in the investigation would be subject to a 21% rate, while non-cooperating companies would be subject to a 38.1% rate.

 

 

 

The EC said it had made a preliminary finding of unfair subsidization by the Chinese authorities, adding: "If discussions with the Chinese authorities do not lead to an effective solution, these provisional countervailing duties will be imposed from July 4."

 

 

 

These would be additional tariffs to the current 10% on electric cars made in China, and could be withdrawn if Beijing and Brussels resolve the subsidy issue.

 

 

 

The additional duties would take effect temporarily from July 4th, and finally from November, unless a qualified majority of EU member states (15 countries representing at least 65% of the Community's population) do not agree to it.

 

 

 

Lin Jian, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, explained on Wednesday that the tariffs are against the principles of market economy and international trade rules, harm China-EU economic and trade cooperation and the stability of the global automobile production and supply chain.

 

 

 

"We call on the EU to uphold its commitment to support free trade and oppose protectionism, and cooperate with China to uphold the common interests of China-EU economic and trade cooperation," Lin Jian said.

 

 

 

German Transport Minister Volker Wissing said on Wednesday that the EU's threat to impose higher import taxes on Chinese electric cars risks a trade war with Beijing.

 

 

 

"The European Commission's punitive duties have hit German companies and their core products. Cars need to be cheap because of greater competition, open markets and much better business conditions in the EU, not because of a trade war and market isolation," said Volker Wissing on the X social network.

 

 

 

Europe has long prided itself on its automotive sector, built on its reputation by iconic brands from Mercedes to Ferrari. But with the coming end of the internal combustion engine era and China's lead in the transition to electric cars, Europe faces an existential threat in this sector.

 

 

 

Last year, Brussels opened an investigation into Chinese electric car subsidies, and officials said they wanted to stop what they say is an unfair practice that is causing European automakers to suffer losses by forcing prices down." [1]

 

 

It turns out that the EU's Green Deal is just a sham to break the industrial and agricultural backbone of Western Europe, to enable the world's biggest companies to flood our market with their disgusting junk. It turns out that the EU does not care about the climate catastrophe, after all, we refuse cheap and good quality Chinese electric cars. It turns out that we, the European Union, are withdrawing from the global economic competition, becoming again a huge pasture of goats and donkeys.