China Will Appeal to WTO over European Duties

On Monday, China filed an appeal with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against the European Union’s decision to impose tariffs on Chinese electric cars.

This was reported by Beijing’s Ministry of Commerce, according to Xinhua News Agency, which explains that China “strongly opposes the EU’s final measures imposing high countervailing duties on Chinese-made electric cars, despite numerous objections raised by stakeholders, including governments of EU member states, industry, and the public.”

The challenge is motivated by China’s interest in “protecting the interests of electric vehicle industry development and global cooperation in green transformation” and therefore invoking the WTO dispute settlement mechanism.

According to a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Commerce, “China believes that the EU decision, which has no legal and factual basis and violates WTO rules, is an abuse of trade protection measures and the practice of trade protectionism in the name of compensation.” China called on the EU to recognize its mistakes, immediately correct its illegal actions, and jointly protect the stability of the global electric vehicle production and supply chain, as well as China-EU economic and trade cooperation as a whole.”

The EU duties, imposed from October 31, could be as high as 45%, depending on the company and the degree of cooperation with Brussels in an investigation the Commission has launched to see whether extensive state support for “electric cars in China” has contributed to unfair competition.