EU approves tariffs on Chinese electric cars with Spain abstaining

Eduardo González The EU Member States have decided this Friday, by simple majority and with Spain abstaining, to give their support to the European Commission to impose tariffs on imports of battery electric vehicles from China. The measure, which represents a further step towards the conclusion of the Brussels investigation into Beijing's subsidies to its companies, will allow definitive countervailing duties to be imposed on imports of battery electric vehicles (BEV) from the Asian giant, the Commission said in a press release. However, the EU and China will continue to work to explore an alternative solution that is fully compatible with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, that allows the harmful subsidies identified by the Commission's investigation to be addressed and that can be monitored and enforced. These tariffs will be 35.3% for the Chinese manufacturer SAIC, 18.8% for Geely and 17% for BYD. In addition, these measures will also affect Western companies that produce in China, such as the American company Tesla, to which a tariff of 7.8% will be applied. The Member States have supported this proposal with ten votes in favour, twelve abstentions and five votes against. Germany has voted against this measure. German industry has expressed fear of retaliation from China, the world's largest car market, and companies such as BMW, Volkswagen and Mercedes have called on both China and Brussels to reach an agreement and not apply tariffs. Among the countries that have abstained is Spain. On September 11, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, declared in Shanghai, during an official visit to China, that both the Member States and the Commission should "reconsider" their position in this conflict and "build bridges between the EU and China." In any case, he did not clarify what the meaning of Spain's vote would be during the European Union debate on tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and limited himself to ensuring that the objective of his Government is to be "constructive and try to find a compromise solution between the EU and China, because we do not need another war, in this case a trade war." Days earlier, Pedro Sánchez and the Chinese Prime Minister, Li Qiang, discussed in Beijing the Chinese decision, announced last June, to open an anti-dumping investigation (unfair competition) against certain imports of pork and derivatives from the European Union, in response to Brussels' decision to impose tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. This measure could particularly affect Spain, the main European exporter of pork to China. According to Sánchez, during his meeting with the Chinese authorities he had conveyed to them his “surprise” that the Spanish pork sector, “a sector that has nothing to do with the automotive sector”, had been “involved” in these negotiations. “Trade wars are of no interest to anyone and I believe that the Chinese population and the Chinese government are very aware of the value of the pork sector, so we are going to continue working to build bridges,” he continued. Sánchez was also received, on his second official trip to China in the last year and a half, by President Xi Jinping, before whom he defended the need for the EU and China to be able to “work together to resolve differences through negotiation, in a spirit of dialogue and collaboration, and within multilateral frameworks”. The President of the Government also held a bilateral meeting in Beijing with the Chinese Association of Automobile Manufacturers and other leading companies in the sector.

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