The European Commission yesterday said that it plans to impose five-year import duties of up to 36 percent on Chinese-manufactured electric vehicles (EV), unless Beijing can offer an alternative solution to a trade row over state subsidies.
It also said that Tesla vehicles that are made in China would face a lower duty of 9 percent.
Brussels last month slapped Chinese EVs with hefty provisional tariffs — coming on top of current duties of 10 percent — after a probe found that they were unfairly undermining European rivals.
Photo: Reuters
The commission yesterday released a draft plan to make those tariffs definitive, subject to input from interested parties by end of this month and to approval by EU member states by the end October.
The definitive rates faced by major Chinese manufacturers would be 17 percent for BYD Co (比亞迪), down from 17.4 percent; 19.3 percent for Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co (吉利控股集團), down from 19.9 percent; and 36.3 percent for Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corp (上海汽車), down from 37.6 percent.
Other producers in China that cooperated with Brussels face a tariff of 21.3 percent — revised slightly upward from 20.8 percent — while those that did not would be subject to the maximum 36.3 percent duty.
Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk — whose company manufactures in China — had asked Brussels for its own duty rate, set at 9 percent, after the commission deemed that it benefited from fewer Chinese subsidies than domestic manufacturers.
Beijing has filed an appeal with the WTO.
“The EU is open to reach a solution that would be an alternative solution to the imposition of duties that would be effective and WTO compatible,” a commission official told reporters.
“We consider that it’s very much up to China to come up with alternatives,” the official added.
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