EU and China trade negotiators fail to strike deal on electric vehicle imports
While both sides commit to further talks, European Commission plans to impose duties on Chinese EV imports to counter Beijing car subsidies
The top trade officials from the European Union and China failed to reach a deal on ending a bitter dispute over electric vehicles during talks in Brussels on Thursday.
However, the sides committed to intensify talks towards finding a negotiated solution to the quarrel, including taking a “renewed look at price undertakings”.
A European Commission readout described lengthy negotiations between EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao as “frank and constructive”.
“Both sides reaffirmed their political will to pursue and intensify efforts in finding a mutually agreeable solution, which would need to be effective in addressing the problem, enforceable, monitorable, as well as WTO-compatible. The two sides agreed to take a renewed look at price undertakings,” the commission’s account read.
This could mean a commitment from China to place a minimum price on electric vehicles exported to the EU to address the bloc’s concerns that the vehicles are undercutting local competition.
