European duties on Chinese electric cars continue to cause controversy, and now it's time to get down to the nitty-gritty. According to Automotive News, China has filed a formal complaint with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) claiming that:
The ruling in the EU's provisional conclusion is without factual and legal basis. It seriously violated WTO rules and undermined global cooperation to tackle climate change.
argued the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.
Backtracking
Also according to Automotive News, a spokesman for the ministry of the eastern giant added:
We urge the EU to immediately correct its mistakes and jointly safeguard economic and trade cooperation between China and the EU, as well as the stability of the electric vehicle supply chain.
There has been no response yet from the European Commission, whose moves are following those taken some time ago by the US. Duties could also become a reality in Canada, where the government is reportedly considering their introduction, also in light of BYD's more than possible entry into the local market.
The reasons for the duties in Europe
Confirmed on 4 July and active since 5 July, the European duties on electric cars produced in China are a response to the dumping policy initiated by China, i.e. all those manoeuvres designed to keep prices artificially low, by means of state subsidies such as preferential taxation, loans and so on.
A practice of which China has been accused by the European Commission, which has thus decided to introduce duties with the amounts shown in the table below:
| Automotive Group | New duty (to be added to the existing 10%) | Total duty |
| MG SAIC Motor | 37.6% | 47.6% |
| Geely Group | 19.9% | 29.9% |
| BYD Group | 17.4% | 27.4% |
| Other cooperating companies | 20.8% | 30.8% |
| All other companies | 37.6% | 47.6% |
As can be seen, over-taxation differs between brands. The group most affected is SAIC, the one to which the lowest duties apply is BYD. The amounts also differ according to the level of cooperation of the Chinese manufacturers during the investigation.
China's complaint joins the chorus of protests against the duties raised by some German manufacturers and 31 European associations, not only from the automotive world. We will now see how Europe will respond.
About duties:
