TMTPost -- China is urging the European Union to step up talks to seek avert years-long additional tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicle (EV) exports.

Credit：the European Commission

China has repeatedly expressed strong opposition to the EU's anti-subsidy investigation on China's EVs, and advocated properly handling economic and trade frictions through dialogue and consultation, said He Yadong, spokesperson for he Ministry of Commerce of China (MOFCOM).  “There is still a four-month window before the (EU’s) final ruling. We hope that the European side will work with China to meet each other halfway, show sincerity, speed up the consultation process, and, on the basis of rules and reality, reach a mutually acceptable solution as soon as possible,” He told reports at regular press last Thursday.

He said Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao and European Commission Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis met virtually on June 22 to discuss the EU probe. The spokesperson revealed the two sides had held multiple rounds of talks at a technical level, without providing details about the talks like wether the talks were underway or any consensus had reached.

Ahead of He’s remarks, the European Commission announced Thursday it imposed provisional countervailing duties of up to 37.6%, on top of the ordinary BEV import duty of 10%, on imports of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) from China. The executive arm of the EU concluded through an anti-subsidy investigation that the BEV value chain in China benefits from unfair subsidization, which is causing a threat of economic injury to EU BEV producers.

Specifically, the additional individual duties on three sampled Chinese EV makers, would be 17.4% for BYD, 19.9% for Geely and 37.6% for SAIC. That means the EU decided to levy a little bit less duties on Geely and SAIC-made EVs since its pre-disclosed proposed rates are 20% and 38.1%, respectively, while BYD, China’s largest EV manufacturer, faces the same tariff rate as EU’s original proposal disclosed on June 12.

 According to a statement of the European Commission , other BEV producers in China, which cooperated in the investigation but have not been sampled, are subject to the 20.8% weighted average duty, marginally downgraded from the Commission’s original proposed 21%, while all other BEV producers in China that did not cooperate in the investigation face an extra duty of 37.6%, compared with the original proposed 38.1%.  

The European Commission suggested the long-term  definitive duties will be effective no later than four months ago, if approved by EU countries. All the abovementioned provisional duties are applied for a maximum duration of four months starting from July 5. Within the four-month timeframe, a final decision must be taken on definitive duties, through a vote by EU Member States, and when adopted, this decision would make the duties definitive for a period of five years, the Commission said.

The European Commission disclosed consultations with the Chinese government had intensified in recent weeks, following an exchange of views betweDombrovskis and Chinese Trade Minister Wang. It said contacts continue at technical level with a view to reaching a World Trade Organization (WTO)-compatible solution, which adequately addresses the concerns raised by the European Union. Any negotiated outcome to the investigation must be effective in addressing the injurious forms of subsidization identified, the Commission added.