EU counters Beijing's EV trade expansion, imposes high tariffs on Chinese producers

Brussels [Belgium], July 4 : The European Commission (EC), in a bid to counter China's attempts to capture the European markets, imposed additional tariffs to maintain healthy competition in the EU's electric vehicle market.
The additional taxes will be imposed on China-made Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) starting July 5, Euro News reported on Thursday.
The decision to impose the taxes was taken after an extensive nine-month investigation conducted by the EC, which concluded, "The EV value chain in China benefits from unfair subsidisation, which is causing a threat of economic injury to EU BEV producers."
Additionally, the investigation also examined possible consequences and impacts of the measures on importers, users, and consumers of BEVs in the EU.
"Public money was detected everywhere, from the mining of raw materials needed to churn out batteries to the shipping services employed to bring the finished products to Europe's shores," Euro News quoted a European Commission official as saying.
The report also mentioned that the huge scale of subsidies allowed by the Chinese authorities to their BEV manufacturers enables them to sell their Chinese EVs at significantly lower prices compared to EVs made in Europe.
The European news organization claimed that these lower prices have triggered significant differences in the market share of China-supplied BEVs, with the difference being noticeable from 3.9 per cent in 2020 to 25 per cent in 2023, data released by the EC stated.
This cost difference in BEVs from both regions poses a threat to the EU economy, affecting approximately 12 million jobs directly and indirectly, causing major losses to European countries. Quoting the EC statement, the Euro News report stated that the taxes will be imposed on top of the existing 10 percent tax rates for EVs in the EU.
The EU imposed these taxes based on the parent company, annual turnover, and suspected amount of subsidies received by China.
According to the EC report quoted by Euro News, the EU has imposed a 17.4 per cent duty on vehicles by BYD, 19.9 per cent on vehicles by Geely, and 37.6 per cent on vehicles made by SAIC.
The EC report further mentioned that other BEV producers in China, which cooperated in the investigation but have not been sampled, would be subject to a weighted average duty of 21 per cent. All other BEV producers in China which did not cooperate in the investigation would be subject to a residual duty of 38.1 per cent.