On Friday 4 October, the European Commission obtained the approval of the EU27 to impose tariffs on Chinese battery-powered electric vehicles. According to several sources, five countries voted against the implementing regulation proposed by the Commission, without being able to overturn it: Germany, Hungary, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia. The Commission therefore has the green light to publish its text before 30 October. Negotiations with China are continuing in parallel to try and find an alternative solution.
These efforts focus on the price undertaking offers submitted by Chinese companies to respect a minimum price for their electric vehicle exports to the EU.
If such agreements were reached with Chinese companies in the future, the Commission would publish a revision of the regulation to include the specific details of the companies concerned, which would no longer be subject to countervailing duties.
Many sectors are worried. Responding to the result of the vote, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce expressed its disappointment at these “protectionist” measures and called on the EU to “delay the implementation of tariffs”.
The German automotive association VDA has called for a negotiated solution, as has ACEA, which represents European car manufacturers. The latter fear a trade war with China.
“The result of the investigation is also not convincing with regard to the announced countervailing duties: German and European manufacturers who export from China to the EU are burdened with higher duties than individual competitors from China and the USA”, denounced the President of the VDA, Hildegard Müller.
The German companies affected are subject to the 20.7% tariff. This is calculated by averaging the subsidies received by all the companies that cooperated in the investigation.
On the other hand, the Chinese companies BYD and Geely are subject to a duty of 17% and 18.8% respectively, as they were included in the sample and therefore benefit from a more precise rate based on the subsidies received.
The highest tariff (35.3%) is for companies that did not cooperate with the investigation. It is based on the subsidies received by SAIC, which was also part of the sample and which received more subsidies than the other two sampled companies.
France’s cognac representative, the BNIC, has expressed regret that the tariffs have been approved at a time when European spirits are subject to a Chinese investigation, which has already reached a provisional conclusion of dumping (see EUROPE 13471/6). “Our requests for a postponement of the vote and a negotiated solution have been ignored. The French authorities have abandoned us”, said the BNIC. France is one of the countries that voted in favour of tariffs.
The pork and dairy industries in the EU are also concerned about the situation, at a time when China is also targeting their exports. Spain, the leading exporter of pork to China, abstained from the vote.
On Thursday 3 October, Spain’s Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, sent a letter to the European Commissioner for Trade, Valdis Dombrovskis, calling for negotiations with China to be kept open. “The stakes are huge for our domestic industry”, he said in the letter, seen by Reuters. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)