EXPERT COMMENT
By following the United States and applying significant tariffs on EVs from China, the EU is risking its ambitious decarbonization goals.
On 12 June, following an anti-subsidy investigation, the European Commission disclosed that it would provisionally impose import tariffs ranging from 27.4 to 48.1 per cent on electric vehicles (EVs) from China. This comes a month after the United States announced that their own tariffs on Chinese EVs would rise to an unprecedented 102.5 per cent.
The Commission's actions on EVs may not be the last taken against clean technology from China, with trade measures having recently been considered for two more major pillars of Europe's energy transition.
An anti-subsidy probe into Chinese solar panel manufacturers bidding for a public project in Romania was closed after the targeted companies withdrew from the process.
An investigation into Chinese wind turbine suppliers is ongoing. Both were launched under the new Foreign Subsidies Regulation.
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