Anti-dumping investigations have been round after round, the EU has quietly lowered tariffs on trams, have China's countermeasures worked? As the trade confrontation between China and the EU continues, why does the EU need to show greater sincerity? Blindly following the United States against China, the EU needs to recognize the reality!
The EU fine-tuned tariffs on electric vehicles, and SAIC was still penalized
After the European Commission announced the end of the countervailing investigation against Chinese trams, it can be said that the effective date of the tram tariffs on July 4 is getting closer and closer, and in this more than half a month, China has taken two measures to respond to the EU's unwarranted malice. On the one hand, by initiating anti-dumping investigations on specific products, the EU countries that support the tariff hike will feel the harm of tariff barriers, and on the other hand, they are in close contact with the EU countries that oppose the tariff increase, and strive for them to exert pressure on the EU to withdraw this decision.
Over time, China's "two-handed approach" seems to have had a certain effect, and the European Commission has begun to implement certain concessions on the extent of tariff increases.
According to a report by Bloomberg on June 27, the European Commission decided to "fine-tune" the tariffs imposed on Chinese automakers after receiving more investigative information, according to a person familiar with the matter, after a new round of adjustments, the countervailing tariffs imposed on SAIC will be reduced from the current 38.1% to 37.6%, Geely's tariffs will be reduced from 20% to 19.9%, and BYD's tariffs will remain unchanged at 17.4%. At the same time, other Chinese EV companies that were not sampled, but were surveyed, will be subject to an average "weighted average tariff" of 20.8%, and those that refuse to cooperate will face a "maximum penalty" of 37.6%.
According to the normal import procedures within the EU, the normal import tariff of 10% is already required for these electric vehicles from China, so even if it is fine-tuned, SAIC still faces a terrifying tax of up to 47.6%.
It is worth noting that the EU brandished the stick of electric vehicles this time, and also hit the American electric car company Tesla, because Tesla also has a production plant in Shanghai, China, but in the final stage of calculating tariffs, Tesla is very likely to be levied a "separately calculated tariff rate", because Tesla has previously applied to the EU for a "separate sampling survey", which shows that the same production of electric vehicles, the EU has an extremely flexible "double standard" for Chinese car companies and American car companies.
Judging from the magnitude of the tariff reduction, the Western-style black humor is highlighted everywhere, especially the 0.1% tariff reduction for Geely Group, which is simply fine-tuned for the sake of fine-tuning.
China's counterattack is working, and the Sino-EU trade war is still fermenting
However, in any case, this small adjustment of tariffs by the EU also proves that a series of countermeasures implemented by China have been effective, although the relevant anti-dumping investigation has not yet yielded results, and the specific share of tariff increases has not been implemented, but it has played a role of "knocking on the mountain and shaking the tiger", firmly framing the EU's tariff increase range, so that they dare not throw a mouse.
At the same time, in addition to the previous anti-dumping investigations against EU wine, pork, and dairy products, China has stepped up its counterattack against the EU, this time directly hitting the EU's "seven inches." ”
On June 27, He Yadong, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce, said that China has repeatedly expressed strong dissatisfaction and opposition to the EU's discriminatory investigation of China under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation.
At this stage, China's Ministry of Commerce has received the application materials submitted by the China Association for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products for the investigation of trade barriers, and is reviewing them in accordance with the law.
According to relevant data, mechanical and electrical products exported to the EU in 2023 accounted for 16% of China's total exports of mechanical and electrical products, and almost all EU countries imported such products from China.
If the EU is ruled to constitute trade barriers after the end of the trade review, and China takes advantage of the situation to launch a counterattack, it will be a real "economic nuclear bomb", and the impact will be more terrible than the additional large-emission tax on fuel vehicles.
Because from a factual point of view, the general added value of such mechanical and electrical products is relatively low, and most of them are labor-intensive products, if they are deployed in Western Europe, it will inevitably outweigh the losses.
Therefore, in the past, the EU mainly focused the production of such products in Eastern Europe, but with the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, it was difficult for Europe to obtain cheaper energy, and small countries in Eastern Europe also began to seize the time to prepare for war, resulting in the EU having to import such products from China in large quantities.
Therefore, we can almost infer that if China launches sanctions against the EU in the field of electromechanical, then the trade war between China and the EU will really start.
We should not blindly follow the United States in opposing China, and the EU needs to show greater sincerity
In fact, if we look back at the EU-wide survey of electric vehicles, one interesting feature is that the survey is not at all in our own interest. Whether it is China's previous "overcapacity theory" or the "illegal subsidy theory" in the field of electric vehicles, we can find that this is the first argument concocted by the US government, and the US government first proposed relevant sanctions, and then the European Commission followed the trend, and a vote of politicians in Europe immediately changed their tone.
Taking electric vehicles as an example, the reason why the Biden administration dares to impose so many tariffs on Chinese trams, and China's countermeasures are also lacking in interest, is that there is not much electric vehicle trade between China and the United States, even if tariffs are imposed, it is harmless, and there are top electric car companies such as Tesla in the United States, and the Biden administration does not have to worry about this kind of sanctions for political needs, which will bring fatal damage to itself.
The situation faced by the EU is completely different, the EU's own strengths are still focused on the traditional field of fuel vehicles, for the more cutting-edge electric vehicles are ignorant of a half-understood, after kicking out Chinese trams with high tariffs, the EU's choice will only be the United States Tesla, further intensifying the path dependence on the United States, so that the competitiveness of the local automobile industry further declines, not to mention the so-called manufacturing revitalization, which may also explain why in the electric vehicle survey, why we reach out to China for sensitive data including battery formulations.
Therefore, this series of actions by the EU is obviously blindly following the anti-China line of the United States, believing that China will not strongly resist the EU just like the United States. But the fact is that the EU's behavior has attracted a strong counterattack from China, resulting in itself being roasted on the fire, so it has fine-tuned the tariffs on electric vehicles to "probe", but only a small reduction in the proportion, it is still quite far from the real Sino-EU reconciliation, and the EU needs to show greater sincerity.