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On the 9th, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce answered reporters' questions about China's lawsuit against the EU's temporary anti-subsidy measures on electric vehicles in the WTO.

It is reported that China has filed a lawsuit at the World Trade Organization (WTO) against the EU's temporary anti-subsidy measures on electric vehicles.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce stated that in order to safeguard the development rights and interests of the electric vehicle industry and global green transformation cooperation, on August 9, China brought the EU's temporary anti-subsidy measures on electric vehicles to the WTO dispute settlement mechanism.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce said that the EU's preliminary ruling lacked factual and legal basis, seriously violated WTO rules, and undermined the overall global cooperation in addressing climate change.We urge the EU to immediately correct its wrong practices and jointly maintain the stability of China-EU economic and trade cooperation and the electric vehicle industry chain and supply chain.

On the 9th local time, the Brussels-based European Union Chamber of Commerce in China issued a statement calling on China and Europe to properly resolve trade frictions over electric vehicles.

The statement said: "Since the EU imposed temporary anti-subsidy duties on imported Chinese electric vehicles on July 5, the EU China Chamber of Commerce has been closely following the progress of the EU's anti-subsidy case against Chinese electric vehicles. We welcome the multiple rounds of technical consultations held between China and the EU, and call on both sides to resolve electric vehicle trade frictions through dialogue and consultation, reach a cooperative rather than protectionist solution, and avoid escalation of the situation. The Chamber reiterated that the imposition of high tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles will seriously hinder Europe's achievement of climate goals, the improvement of industrial competitiveness and China-EU automotive industry chain cooperation."

Urge the EU to correct its wrong practices immediately

On June 22, China and the EU agreed to launch consultations on the EU's anti-subsidy investigation into China's electric vehicles.

On July 4, He Yadong, spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, said at a regular press conference that China has repeatedly expressed strong opposition to the EU's anti-subsidy investigation on Chinese electric vehicles and advocated properly handling economic and trade frictions through dialogue and consultation. He Yadong said that there is still a four-month window before the final ruling. It is hoped that the EU will work with China to meet each other halfway, show sincerity, speed up the consultation process, and reach a solution acceptable to both sides as soon as possible based on facts and rules.

According to the European Commission website, the entire EU anti-subsidy investigation procedure must be completed within 13 months after the case is filed, including all stages from filing to final ruling. According to regulations, the preliminary ruling (i.e. temporary anti-subsidy measures) must be made within 9 months after the investigation is launched, and these temporary measures can last for up to 4 months.

Several experts interviewed by the First Financial Daily said that this means that China and Europe still have four months from July 4 to November 2 to conduct relevant consultations.

On the 5th, it was reported that European Commission Executive Vice President and Trade Commissioner Dombrovskis said in an interview that EU member states are likely to support the proposal to impose tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in November.

However, there are always doubts from the EU. According to the Economic Daily, recently, the German "Agora Transportation Transformation" think tank and the Boston Consulting Group jointly released a research report showing that if the German government wants to achieve its goal of having 15 million electric vehicles by 2030, it must rely on Chinese automakers. In addition, if the German government continues its current development path, Germany will produce about 6 million fewer electric vehicles than the target number by 2030.

Christian Hochfeld, head of the Agora Mobility Transformation think tank, harshly criticized the EU's plan to impose higher tariffs on electric vehicles imported from China. "If we want to achieve our climate goals and ensure Germany's long-term position as a global automotive manufacturing base, we should work hard to promote the rapid development of electric vehicles with the participation of Chinese companies," Hochfeld said.

According to the report, if Germany achieves its production target of 15 million electric vehicles by 2030 as scheduled, vehicles produced by Chinese manufacturers will account for about 15% of the market share of Germany's total electric vehicles, or about 2.2 million vehicles.

The report also pointed out that if the EU raises tariffs on electric vehicles imported from China by 20 to 40 percentage points, even if the German government takes far-reaching measures to expand its domestic electric vehicle market at the same time, Germany will not be able to achieve its original target of 15 million electric vehicles, with a gap of 1.3 million to 2.4 million vehicles.

The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China also stated in a statement that the transformation of automobile electrification is crucial for the EU to achieve its climate goals. According to the International Energy Agency, 50%-95% of global car sales will be electric vehicles in 2035. At the same time, since passenger cars account for 16% of the EU's carbon dioxide emissions, the EU has formulated regulations to stop selling fuel vehicles in 2035. However, in 2023, the proportion of new pure electric vehicles sold in the EU was only 14.6%, accounting for only 1.7% of the passenger car ownership. The transformation of European automobile electrification needs to be accelerated. Imposing high tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles will raise the price of electric vehicles, suppress consumer demand for electric vehicles, and slow down the EU's green transformation and the progress of achieving climate neutrality goals.

EU Chamber of Commerce in China: Protectionism will only bring high protection costs

The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China said that the transformation of European automobile electrification requires a fully competitive environment rather than protectionism. The success of the European automobile industry to date mainly comes from the full competition of automobile manufacturers and the continuous innovation brought about by competition. The electrification transformation problems faced by European automakers today are common challenges and opportunities for global automakers, and the solution is also full competition and continuous innovation. The development history of the global automobile industry has repeatedly shown that protectionism will only bring high protection costs and companies that gradually lose their competitiveness under the umbrella of tariffs.

"Imposing high tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles is to wrongly blame external competition for internal industry problems, which will only reduce effective competition and encourage laziness, and deviate from truly effective solutions." The chamber of commerce said that the automotive industry is essentially international, and the electrification of the European automotive industry cannot be separated from China-EU cooperation in a wide range of areas such as trade, investment, technology and supply chain. In particular, once the anti-subsidy investigation on electric vehicles labels Chinese auto companies as "subsidized", the risk of their investment, production and operation in Europe being investigated by the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation will be greatly increased, which will severely hit the in-depth cooperation between China and Europe in the field of electric vehicles, and the spillover impact will far exceed trade.

According to a survey conducted by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China on more than 30 new energy companies and institutions in the first half of this year, 82% of the companies surveyed said that their confidence in investing in Europe has declined significantly since the anti-subsidy investigation began; 67% believed that it had a negative impact on their brand reputation; 83% said that European partners expressed concerns about cooperating with them and postponed or reduced related cooperation; 72% said that their local European employees were worried about their job prospects.

The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China has noted that many European automakers have recently continued to speak out against the imposition of taxes on Chinese electric vehicles and suggested that the two sides resolve trade frictions through dialogue and consultation. The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China once again calls on China and Europe to continue to accelerate dialogue and consultation to reach a solution acceptable to both sides, in line with WTO rules, and in line with the expectations of both companies and markets as soon as possible, effectively resolve economic and trade frictions, stabilize the confidence and expectations of trade and investment cooperation between Chinese and European companies, and jointly promote the transformation of automobile electrification and achieve climate neutrality goals.