EC’s trade defense measures harm all sides involved: industry body

The European Commission (EC) made many unlawful findings in the preliminary determination on tariffs over Chinese imported electric vehicles (EVs), incompatible with WTO and EU rules, according to the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products (CCCME).

Trade defense measures will harm all sides involved, the Chinese industry body noted.

"The strength and growth of the EU and Chinese battery electric vehicles (BEV) industries lie in collaboration, not conflict. China is still open to, and hopeful of, a balanced solution to this investigation," the CCCME said.

The industry body has presented its views on the preliminary determination orally in a hearing with the EC, stating is it "very concerned" that the determination is WTO-inconsistent on subsidy, injury and causality findings as well as procedural aspects. The CCCME urged the EC to correct their unlawful findings and terminate the investigation.

The CCCME pointed out that the EC did not comply with the legal rules and departed from its established practice of selecting the exporting producers representing the largest export volume to the EU in the sample as the three selected Chinese BEV firms only represent a total of 49 percent of the total Chinese BEV export volume to the EU.

On Friday, in a meeting with Volkswagen AG Chairman of the Board Oliver Blume, China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao urged the EC and the EU member states to speed up the consultation process and reach an appropriate solution as soon as possible to prevent the escalation of trade frictions on the basis of respecting facts and rules.

The CCCME in June submitted a brief on behalf of the domestic machinery and electronic products sector concerning the EU's barrier investigation, with its application materials received by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

The EC earlier this month introduced provisional additional tariffs of up to 37.6 percent on Chinese EV makers. The decision has met opposing voices from many EU countries and industry bodies.

In an interview with Xinhua, published on Saturday, Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research in Bochum, criticized the EU imposing additional tariffs on the imports of Chinese EVs.

The German expert said that the tariffs are "not based on proven facts," but on assertions to justify them.

According to the EC, a final decision will be taken on definitive duties in the coming months.