Oct. 30 (UPI) -- China hit out Wednesday at European Union duties on imports of Chinese-made battery electric vehicles accusing the 27-member country bloc of "pure protectionism" that would hurt East-West supply lines, consumers and the effort to deal with the climate crisis and said it had filed a complaint at the World Trade Organization.
"The EU's anti-subsidy probe and high tariffs on Chinese EVs -- neither of which were demanded by the industry -- is pure protectionism detrimental to China-EU supply chain cooperation, to European consumers, and to EU's green transition and global climate response," Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lin Jian wrote in a post on X.
Lin said "trade frictions" were best dealt with by talking to each other respectfully and through consultation in a way that served the interests of all parties and what business and the public would expect.
"We urge EU to continue its consultations with China, work constructively and show sincerity and flexibility to find the solution and avoid escalating trade frictions," he added.
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Announcing double-digit tariffs on "unfairly subsidized" Chinese EVs for a period of five years on Wednesday, the European Commission said in a news release that its one-year anti-subsidy investigation had found that China's BEV value chain benefited from unfair state subsidies that posed a threat of economic injury to EU producers.
The big three Chinese EV makers -- BYD, Geely and SAIC -- will be subject to duties of 17%, 18.8% and 35.3%, respectively, with the tariffs due to come into force immediately," the SAIC was slapped with the top 35.3% rate along with other EV makers deemed "non-cooperating."
The vehicles of firms deemed to be "cooperating" will attract a flat 20.7% rate.
Tesla was assigned a 7.8% rate following a "substantiated request" that its situation receive an individual examination.
However, the commission stressed that EU-China negotiations would continue in hopes of reaching alternative WTO-compatible solutions and that it remained open to hammering out deals that would cap the minimum price of EV imports with individual exporters.
Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis insisted the EU remained the "global champion for open, fair and rules-based trade."
"We welcome competition, including in the electric vehicle sector, but it must be underpinned by fairness and a level playing field. By adopting these proportionate and targeted measures after a rigorous investigation, we're standing up for fair market practices and for the European industrial base," he said.
The Commerce Ministry said China had repeatedly pointed out that the EU's anti-subsidy investigation of electric vehicles in China included many "unreasonable and non-compliant" aspects and was a protectionist approach that promoted "unfair competition" in the name of "fair competition".
"China does not agree with or accept the ruling and has filed a lawsuit under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. China will continue to take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises," the ministry said in a news release.
