Brussels (The Brussels Morning Newspaper) – The European Commission states the offer of price floors or volume caps would not compensate for the injury caused by Chinese subsidies.
The European Commission has refused proposals made by China to set minimum fees or volume caps on imports of electric vehicles into the EU, representative for Trade Olof Gill expressed The finding deals a blow to Beijing’s desperate measures to reach a negotiated solution with the EU to avoid setting of hefty duties on made-in-China EVs after the bloc identified a sweeping subsidy schedule ranging from refining lithium to shipping the cars abroad.
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Spokesperson for Trade Olof Gill told a news meeting that the EU Commission had examined the Chinese proposals based on whether they “would eliminate the injurious outcomes of the subsidies identified in our investigation, and whether these price undertakings could be effectively monitored and enforced.”
“The EU Commission has figured that none of the offers met these requirements,” Gill reported.
“We remain open to a negotiated solution,” Gill said while stressing that any Chinese proposal should accord with World Trade Organization rules and address the subsidies.
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The content of the offers is secret. In a final attempt to convince the EU, China’s Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao will seated with the bloc’s trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis on Sept. 19.
China’s Wang lands in Brussels days before representatives of EU governments will hold a formal vote, on Sept. 25, to cement the duties for five years. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain offered on a visit to China this week that his government might change its earlier opinion and vote against it.
Moreover, Gill refused to remark on Sánchez’s apparent change of heart. He also didn’t want to indicate whether the EU Commission still has enough votes in favor. Under the bloc’s regulations, a so-called qualified majority of 15 nations, representing 65 percent of the EU population, would be required to vote against the duties to block them. The duties vary from 7.8 percent to 35.3 percent and are indicated to cancel out the subsidies the Chinese government has lavished on electric vehicle makers
