On Wednesday 30 October, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce reacted to the imposition of countervailing duties by the EU on Chinese electric vehicles (see EUROPE 13514/2). It maintained its disapproval of the investigation and all its aspects and described the result as “protectionist”. Since China considers the tariffs to be unfounded, it has indicated that it has lodged a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO). At the time of writing, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce had not confirmed whether this was an application to open a panel.
In fact, Beijing has already launched the WTO dispute settlement procedure on this issue, requesting the opening of consultations on 9 August. Now that more than 60 days have passed, China can take the next step, which is to open a panel.
However, a formal request to the WTO had not been made at the time of writing.
Chinese investments. According to Reuters, China has asked Chinese carmakers to curb their investments in the 10 European countries that voted in favour of anti-subsidy tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles last month (see EUROPE 13497/1). (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)