Germany lobbies fellow EU members to vote against tariffs on Chinese EVs

Efforts by Berlin come as China’s commerce minister is in Europe amid the trade dispute

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Visitors at an electric vehicle expo in Frankfurt, Germany, look at a Zeekr automobile, manufactured by the Chinese company Geely. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 2:03am, 17 Sep 2024Updated: 5:21pm, 17 Sep 2024

Germany and China are actively working to convince European Union members to oppose electric vehicle tariffs during a vote next week, senior EU sources say.

Berlin has been phoning other capitals in a late bid to get them to oppose the duties during a vote planned for September 25.

The development comes as Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao makes his way around Europe, discussing the high-profile trade dispute with senior figures in influential governments.

Having spent the weekend in Italy, Wang will meet Robert Habeck, Germany’s minister for economic affairs, on Tuesday in Berlin, according to people familiar with the arrangements.

He will sit down with car industry operators from Europe and China in a round table on Wednesday in Brussels, then meet EU trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis in the Belgian capital on Thursday morning in an effort to stop the duties from coming into force.

Germany is comfortably China’s largest trading partner in Europe, and the fortunes of its powerful car sector have for decades influenced its policies towards the world’s second-largest economy.

02:03

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