“Political will” and “stepping up efforts” to reach an agreement that can bury the EU-China war on electric vehicles. These are the commitments made by the European Commission’s Vice-President for Economic Affairs, Valdis Dombrovskis, and the Chinese Minister of Commerce, Wang Wentao, at a meeting in Brussels where they discussed the customs tariffs that, for the time being, have been imposed provisionally. The EU must address the distortion of the EU market caused by Beijing’s subsidies for the manufacture of electric vehicles in that country.
“Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis reiterated that the investigation into electric vehicles from China is strictly based on facts and evidence and is fully in line with World Trade Organization rules and EU law. He stressed that the EU market will remain open to imports of Chinese electric vehicles, as the EU’s objective is to offset only the subsidies identified, thus allowing fair competition in the internal market and a level playing field,” the European Commission said after the meeting.
The tariffs therefore continue. However, Brussels’ intention has always been to try to reach an agreement with Beijing. But in the negotiation, the offer of the Asian giant was unaffordable for the community government since it was limited only to the minimum prices of vehicles manufactured in that country. However, the statement states that both parties have agreed to “review the price commitments”.
“Both sides reaffirmed their political will to continue and intensify efforts to find a mutually acceptable solution, which must be effective in resolving the problem, implementable, monitorable and WTO-compatible,” the European Commission notes. The commitment is to deploy all “efforts” at the technical level to find a solution.
But Brussels specifies that the process is continuing and that the deadlines are legally fixed: before October 30, the governments of the 27 must take a final decision on the rates, which vary between 9% and 36.3% in addition to the 10% that was already in force.
In the midst of negotiations, Pedro Sánchez asked Brussels to “reconsider” the tariffs, opening a breach in the negotiating position of the European Commission. In Brussels, the words of the Spanish president, who aligned himself with Germany, were not well received. But Sánchez was on an official trip to Beijing and Spain has important economic interests with China.
Furthermore, Spain is one of the countries that will suffer the most from China’s response to tariffs on electric vehicles, as it has announced retaliatory measures on the import of pork – one of Spain’s main exports -, in addition to brandy and dairy products. Vice-President Dombrovskis expressed the EU’s “deep concern” about this response during his meeting with Wang Wentao. “He stressed that these investigations are unjustified, based on dubious allegations and lack sufficient evidence. The European Vice-President therefore called for an end to these investigations and informed the Chinese side that the EU would do everything possible to defend the interests of its industries,” Brussels warns.
