EU states support the Commission's proposal to tax imports of electric vehicles from China

The European Commission's proposal to impose anti-dumping duties on imports of battery-powered electric vehicles from China obtained, last week, the necessary support from the EU member states. This represents a new step towards the completion of the European Commission's anti-subsidy investigation, according to a press release from the Community Executive, quoted by Agerpres.

"In parallel, the EU and China continue to make sustained efforts to explore an alternative solution, which will have to be fully compatible with the regulations of the World Trade Organization (WTO), to adequately solve the harmful subsidy established according to the investigation of the European Commission, to be able to be monitored and implemented", states the Community Executive.

The provisional tariffs that apply from July 5 to the three Chinese manufacturers in the sample are 17.4% for BYD cars, 19.9% for Geely cars and 37.6% for SAIC cars. These tariffs are provided for a period of five years.

• Spain asked to find a compromise

The European Union should seek a compromise and a negotiated outcome with Beijing, Spanish officials said, ahead of Friday's vote on imposing additional customs duties on electric vehicle imports from China.

Instead of imposing tariffs, the EU "should keep negotiations open ... beyond the date of the vote" to reach an agreement on prices and the relocation of battery production in the bloc, according to a letter from the Spanish economy minister , Carlos Cuerpo, addressed to the vice-president of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, and consulted by Reuters.

"There is a lot at stake for our domestic industry. We need to find a balance, technical and political, to ensure that we defend our industrial interests and avoid a large-scale confrontation with strategic players such as China," said Cuerpo, noting that Spain is the second largest car manufacturer in EU.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said last month during a visit to China that the EU should reconsider its stance on tariffs and called on Brussels and Beijing to avoid a trade war.

Volkswagen and Renault are among the automakers already making electric vehicles in Spain, while Chinese group Chery Auto has set up a joint venture with Spanish firm EV Motors to produce cars at its first plant in Europe.

According to European Commission data, China's surplus capacity of three million electric vehicles per year, which must be exported, is double the size of the EU market. Taking into account the customs duties imposed by the United States and Canada, most of the electric vehicles will end up in Europe.