EU tariff hikes on Chinese electric vehicles come at end of long and bumpy road

A 278-page account shows all sides – governments, car firms, business chambers – disagreeing on every aspect of the long-running dispute

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The European Union has begun collecting hefty import tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles but the European Commission has pledged to continue talking to Beijing about the issue. Photo: Reuters

Published: 2:09pm, 30 Oct 2024Updated: 3:12pm, 30 Oct 2024

After a year of investigating and four months of negotiating, the European Union began collecting hefty import tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles from midnight on Tuesday.

The European Commission – the architect of the duties of up to 35.3 per cent – pledged to continue talking to Beijing.

Newly published documents, however, show how bruising long rounds of negotiations on EVs have become. A 278-page account of the back-and-forth between the commission, the Chinese government, various business chambers and individual car and battery makers, show the sides disagreeing on every aspect of the long-running dispute.

Under pressure from EU member states, including Germany, to keep working towards a deal that would lift or reduce anti-subsidy tariffs, the commission is prepared to fly negotiators to China. But the exchanges emphasise how difficult it will be to make future deals on tariff reduction.

“It was a little bit like being before a judge, without the judge being present, each side basically making his or her argument, just trying to to win it,” said a senior EU official involved in the talks, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

After the commission announced provisional tariff rates on July 4, the Chinese commerce ministry, various chambers of commerce and individual companies started lodging complaints about the process.