Illustration: Chen Xia/Global Times
German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (right) sits in a BMW i5 during a tour of a BMW research center in Shanghai as part of a visit to China on June 23, 2024. Photo: VCG
China and the EU agreed on Saturday to launch consultations on the anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese electric vehicles (EVs). Chinese observers said the move highlights China’s greater sincerity in seeking to resolve trade disputes through negotiations, while showing EU officials’ concerns about the negative impact on businesses and European consumers if the European Commission (EC) continued its politically motivated tariff system.
Observers said the best outcome desired by the Chinese side is for the EC, the EU’s executive body, to abandon its tariff decision before July 4 and respect WTO rules.
They urged the EU to resolve disputes based on facts and economic and trade cooperation between China and the EU rather than being disrupted by political factors, including US pressure.
The scale of economic and trade cooperation between China and the EU is enormous, and the two sides are mutually dependent and have strong economic complementarity. The EU’s increasingly protectionist measures will certainly trigger countermeasures from China, and an escalation of trade frictions will only lead to losing outcomes for both sides, they said.
Ready for dialogue
Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and Valdis Dombrovskis, executive vice president of the EC, agreed on Saturday to begin consultations on the issue of the EU’s anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese electric vehicles. The consensus was reached during talks between the two officials via video link, the ministry said in a press release on its website.
The announcement comes after Wang said in a meeting with German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck on Saturday that China was ready to engage in dialogue and consultations on electric vehicles if the EU was ready to sit down at the negotiating table with sincerity.
“China is willing to take into account the reasonable concerns of both sides to avoid the escalation of trade frictions in a rational and professional manner,” Wang said.
Zhang Jian, vice president of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times on Sunday that the Chinese side has shown utmost sincerity in seeking to resolve differences through consultations.
The strong opposition of some member countries to the tariffs planned by the EC on Chinese electric vehicles as well as China’s commitment to take “necessary measures” to firmly defend its legitimate rights and interests have prompted the EC to conduct consultations with the Chinese side, according to Zhang.
It is hoped that the EC can abandon its decision to impose temporary tariffs on Chinese imports of electric vehicles through consultations and comply with WTO rules, he said.
During the meeting with Wang, Habeck said the German government was deeply concerned about the EU’s anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese electric vehicles, which would negatively impact Europe’s green transition and the interests of consumers.
“Overall, China-EU relations will be increasingly deteriorated if the EC continues to impose tariffs on Chinese products, disregarding the Chinese side’s efforts to engage in friendly consultations,” said Sun Yanhong, a senior researcher at the Institute of European Chinese Studies. Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Sun said upcoming consultations on the anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese electric vehicles could be extremely difficult, as some European politicians have politicized and instrumentalized economic and trade issues.
“The accusation of ‘overcapacity’ in China’s electric vehicle sector is baseless. The investigation process was filled with unfair and opaque practices, and the decision is also unfair,” Sun said, calling on the EU to resolve the Sino-European dispute on the issue. Chinese electric vehicles from an economic point of view instead of being impacted politically.
The EU is entirely blamed
China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Friday that the European side bears full responsibility as it continues to escalate trade frictions with China, which could trigger a “trade war”, in response to the media reports that various EU industries are expressing concerns that escalating trade tensions could trigger a “trade war”.
Since the beginning of this year, the EU has imposed 31 restrictive trade and investment measures against China, of which 25 were trade remedy measures, seriously undermining economic and trade cooperation between China and the EU, according to MOFCOM.
New information obtained by the Global Times offers a detailed account of how the EC conducted its so-called anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese electric vehicles in an extraordinarily unfair and opaque manner and deliberately provoked a deadly trade row with China.
“The EC’s investigation and preliminary decision regarding the imposition of provisional customs duties on Chinese imports of electric vehicles reflect the EU’s concern about the comparative advantage of China’s electric vehicle industry and to the EU’s own industrial weakness,” said Ding Chun, director of the Center for European Studies at Fudan University. the Global Times on Sunday.
The competitiveness of Chinese electric vehicles across the world is the result of Chinese companies’ breakthroughs in core technologies, highly efficient innovations, scale effect and a series of other good strategic choices, according to Ding .
China and the EU are each other’s major trade and investment partners and have closely linked industrial and supply chains. For disputes in sectors such as electric vehicles, the two sides should resolve all issues through negotiations, instead of involving them in geopolitical conflicts and making threats with protectionist measures, Ding said.
“Technological change will be a key driver of Europe’s green and digital transition. Like it or not, China happens to be a leader in technologies that are vital if Europe is to progress towards carbon neutrality,” said Dick Roche, former Irish Foreign Minister. European Affairs and former environment minister, said Wednesday at an event organized by the China Chamber of Commerce to the EU in Brussels.
The logical thing for Europe to do at this point is to recognize this reality and sit down with China and any other potential partners to find solutions to the ideological, political and administrative differences that stand in the way of progress, Roche said .