Chinese manufacturers demand counter-tariffs on European cars
According to Chinese media, this consideration, which was already leaked in May, was called for on Tuesday during a non-public meeting in Beijing between the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and representatives of six European and four Chinese car manufacturers as well as various industrial and research organisations.
In other words, after the EU announced the special tariffs at the beginning of June (unless an agreement is reached by 4 July, which is considered unlikely), there are now also calls for a response that would affect the European car industry. According to the Car News China portal, around 250,000 cars with combustion engines with an engine capacity of more than 2.5 litres were imported to China in 2023. A few days ago, the Federal Statistical Office announced that 241,000 cars were exported from Germany to China in 2023. 90 per cent of these were pure petrol engines with a displacement of 1.5 to 3.0 litres and mild and full hybrids. However, Destatis has not published statistics on vehicles with an engine capacity of more than 2.5 litres.
During the meeting, a Chinese trade representative is also said to have accused the EU of using the investigation as a pretext to “appropriate business secrets from Chinese EV manufacturers.” The probable background to this statement is that the EU has made the special tariffs dependent on the level of subsidies identified in the investigation. If a Chinese manufacturer has received more money from the government (and can therefore offer its vehicles at a lower price according to EU logic), the import duty into the EU is higher. In the case of BYD, Geely and SAIC, this has led to very different tariff rates. Manufacturers who do not cooperate (and presumably disclose supply chains and business secrets in the process) are subject to a 38.1 per cent special duty, just like SAIC.
1 Comment