China has lodged a complaint with the WTO over the EU’s decision to impose anti-subsidy duties on Chinese electric vehicles (EV), escalating a dispute that is straining their already fraught relationship.
Beijing brought the case to the WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism yesterday, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said.
The aim is to “safeguard the development rights and interests” of the EV industry, it added.
Photo: Bloomberg
“Judgment in the EU’s provisional conclusion lacks factual and legal foundation,” a ministry spokesperson said. “It severely violated WTO rules and undermined the global cooperation on dealing with climate change.”
“We urge the EU to immediately correct its wrongdoing, and together safeguard China-EU economic and trade cooperation as well as the stability of EV supply chain,” the spokesperson added.
Beijing’s relationship with the EU has hit fresh lows in recent months, as the bloc brings its China policy closer to that of the US. The EU last month imposed provisional tariffs on some car imports from China that would raise rates to as high as 48 percent after a months-long probe into Chinese state aid to EV makers.
The move drew swift condemnation from Beijing. China has already threatened retaliation against European farmers and plane makers, and launched an anti-dumping probe targeting the French spirits industry.
Chinese state-owned automaker SAIC Motor Corp (上海汽車集團) is subject to the highest tariff of 37.6 percent on top of an existing 10 percent rate, while Geely Holding Group Co (吉利) and BYD Co (比亞迪) have been hit with added charges of 19.9 percent and 17.4 percent, respectively.
The EV sector has increasingly been caught up in tensions over trade and geopolitics as the world transitions away from the internal combustion engine. China has become a world leader, partly by investing lots of money after identifying EVs as crucial for the environment and the economy.
The US has also sought to limit the entry of Chinese-made EVs, levying tariffs of more than 100 percent, as it said that Beijing is flooding the world with cheap goods, particularly in new green industries. Canada is also considering similar steps.
China has filed a WTO complaint over the US’s own subsidies for EVs, saying the rules are discriminatory. The administration of US President Joe Biden imposed restrictions that mean vehicles containing battery components or raw materials sourced from “foreign entities of concern” would no longer qualify for purchase tax credits of as much as US$7,500.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the