The European Union (EU) and China’s top trade representatives will meet in Brussels on Thursday amid a row over Chinese subsidies for electric vehicles (EV) and import tariffs.
Previous exchanges between EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis and the Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao failed to settle the dispute.
The European Commission believed that Chinese subsidies for electric cars have distorted the market in the EU, as European carmakers are losing ground to global competitors.
Beijing accused the EU of protectionism and has already responded with, for example, investigations into pork imports from the EU.
EU member states are currently mulling commission plans to impose controversial long-term import tariffs to counter Chinese EV subsidies.
If approved by the EU capitals, countervailing tariffs on EVs produced in China, in addition to the EU’s standard 10 per cent import duty on cars, are to apply from Oct. 30, for five years.
EU countries are increasingly cautious about the plans.
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck called for a political solution on Tuesday, ahead of a meeting with Commerce Minister Wang in Berlin.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez recently called for a re-evaluation of the plans.
“We don’t need another war, in this case a trade war,’’ Sánchez said last week in China, after meetings with President Xi Jinping and other top Chinese officials.
