AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)10/30 Report--

The European Commission (EC) issued a statement on October 29 local time, ending the countervailing investigation on imports of pure electric vehicles from China and deciding to impose a final countervailing duty on imports of pure electric vehicles from China for a period of five years. The final tariff will come into effect on the 31st.

On October 4, 2023, the European Commission launched a countervailing investigation into electric vehicles imported from China; on July 4, 2024, the European Commission began to impose temporary countervailing duties on Chinese electric vehicles; on August 20, 2024, the European Union issued the final draft of the countervailing investigation on electric vehicles in China, which proposes to impose countervailing duties of 17% to 36.3% on Chinese electric vehicles. On October 4, 2024, the European Union voted on whether to impose a five-year countervailing duty on Chinese electric vehicles. In the vote, 10 EU member states supported the tariff, 5 voted against it, and 12 abstained.

According to the final tariff given by the European Commission, the sampled Chinese export producers will be subject to different tariff rates, which are slightly adjusted compared with the previous temporary countervailing duty rate. Among them, SAIC will be levied 35.3% countervailing duty, Geely Motor will be levied 18.8% countervailing duty, BYD will be levied 17.0% countervailing duty, other cooperative companies will be levied 20.7% tariff; other non-cooperative companies will be levied 35.3% tariff; Tesla will be levied 7.8% tariff after making individual review request. In addition, the EU decided not to impose the previously announced temporary tariffs on electric vehicles imported from China from July 4, 2024.

The European Commission said in a statement that the European Union and China are continuing their efforts to find alternative tariffs in line with WTO regulations to effectively offset the impact of Chinese subsidies. The European Commission also remains willing to negotiate price commitments separately with car exporters in accordance with EU and WTO regulations.

In response, China's Ministry of Commerce said that there are many unreasonable and irregularities in the EU's countervailing investigation of electric vehicles in China, which is a protectionist practice of "unfair competition" in the name of "fair competition". China does not agree with and does not accept the outcome of the ruling and has filed a lawsuit under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. China will continue to take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises. At the same time, the European side said that it would continue to negotiate with China on the price commitment. China has always advocated the settlement of trade disputes through dialogue and consultation and has been doing its utmost to this end. At present, the technical teams of the two sides are conducting a new stage of consultations, hoping that the European side will work together with China in a constructive manner, take care of each other's core concerns in accordance with the principle of "pragmatism and balance", and reach a solution acceptable to both sides as soon as possible. avoid escalating trade frictions.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian stressed at a regular press conference that EU institutions' insistence on conducting countervailing investigations and imposing high tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in the absence of industry applications is a typical act of trade protectionism. it will damage China-EU industrial chain and supply chain cooperation, harm the interests of European consumers, and damage the EU's green transformation and global efforts to deal with climate change.

In addition, Hildegard Muller, president of the German Automobile Industry Association, said in a statement that the EU's imposition of tariffs on electric vehicles imported from China is a retrogression in global free trade and has a negative impact on Europe's prosperity, employment and economic growth. It believes that the move could increase the risk of trade conflict and eventually damage the industry as a whole. at the same time, it will directly lead to higher costs for consumers to buy cars and may hinder the promotion of electric vehicles.

Prior to this, many European parties strongly opposed the EU's imposition of tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, believing that this was not conducive to the competitiveness of European car companies and the EU's goal of green transformation, and called for continued negotiations with China. In addition, officials from Spain, Hungary, Finland and other countries have also called on the EU to resolve the issue through negotiations.

On October 30, Chinese importers and exporters of mechanical and electrical products issued a statement saying that they expressed great regret on behalf of China's automobile industry, and pointed out that the European Commission did not correct many previous errors in the final announcement, except for a serious lack of transparency in procedures. It did not fundamentally solve the problem of low-level representation caused by deviation from the rules and previous practice sampling, and did not objectively analyze the EU industry damage indicators. Causality is still mistakenly identified. The unfair, unreasonable and objective determination made by the European Commission on this case has seriously violated the relevant rules of WTO and EU countervailing.

As one of the enterprises affected by the imposition of tariffs, SAIC deeply regrets the final decision of the European Commission and intends to take necessary legal measures to sue the case to the European Court of Justice to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests. SAIC said: "the EU will focus on imposing additional tariffs of up to 35.3% on SAIC pure electric models, which will push up the car purchase cost of European consumers and hinder the popularity of electric vehicles."

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