BRUSSELS -- European Union countries on Friday voted to impose duties on imports of electric vehicles from China, as talks continued between Brussels and Beijing to find an amicable solution to their trade dispute before an end-of-October deadline.Electric vehicles have become a major flash point in a broader trade dispute over the influence of Chinese government subsidies on European markets — which has forced the undercutting of EU industry prices — and Beijing’s burgeoning exports of green technology to the bloc.The European Commission, which manages trade on behalf of the 27 member countries, welcomed their majority approval of its plan to impose the duties, even though EU automotive powerhouse Germany and Hungary voted against it.Those duties will come into force on Oct.31 unless China has a solution to end the standoff.Commission spokesman Olof Gill said that any solution proposed by Beijing would have to be fully compatible with World Trade Organization rules, remedy “the injurious subsidization” by China, and be “monitorable and enforceable.”Beijing opposes the duties.
“China firmly opposes the EU’s unfair, non-compliant and unreasonable protectionist practices in this case, and firmly opposes the EU’s imposition of anti-subsidy duties on Chinese electric vehicles,” a spokesperson at China’s Commerce Ministry said in comments posted online.Still, it means that the EU and the Chinese government have four more weeks to negotiate.Talks have already been held between Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU commissioner for the economy, and Chinese Trade Minister Wang Wentao, as well as at the level of technical experts.The China-EU technical teams are due to resume negotiations on Oct.
7.The duties on Chinese manufacturers, if applied, would be 17% on cars from BYD, 18.8% on those from Geely and 35.3% for vehicles exported by China’s state-owned SAIC.Geely has brands including Polestar and Sweden’s Volvo, while SAIC owns Britain’s MG, one of ...