European Union members voted on Friday to impose punitive tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles in a hotly anticipated move that is bound to draw a reaction from Beijing.
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Tariffs will be imposed by October 31 after a confidential vote of the bloc’s 27 member states. This came after an anti-subsidy investigation that found Chinese-made EVs were distorting the European market.
It marks a victory for European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen who, backed by France, had pushed for a crackdown on what she has described as a “flood” of cut-price, subsidised EVs from China into the EU market.
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Chinese-made electric vehicles face additional EU import tariffs of up to 38%
Chinese-made electric vehicles face additional EU import tariffs of up to 38%
It will be a bitter pill to swallow for Beijing. It had – along with Germany – lobbied fiercely against the tariffs, which it has challenged at the World Trade Organization. China has also launched a series of retaliatory trade investigations.
The duties range from 7.8 per cent for Tesla to a top rate of 35.5 per cent for state-owned SAIC Motor and other companies deemed to have not cooperated with the EU’s anti-subsidy probe.
BYD’s electric vehicles will carry an extra duty of 17 per cent, compared to 18.8 per cent for Geely. Each of these comes on top of a base rate of 10 per cent for all EVs imported into the EU from China.
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The European Commission said the countervailing duties were required to equalise the impact of state subsidies in China’s EV sector. It argued that the Chinese government handouts allowed the cars to be sold cheaper than local models in the European market.