China’s Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao and the European Commission’s Trade Commissioner Valois Dombrovskis will meet with each other on Thursday, September 19, 2024. Wentao and Dombrovskis will discuss the current state of trade relations between China and Europe.
Over the weekend, Wang met with the President of the Italian Association of the Automotive Industry, Roberto Vavassori in Turin, Italy. The pair discussed the Commission’s anti-subsidy investigation on China-made electric vehicles (EVs), which resulted in the tariffs on Chinese EV imports.
Vavassori and China’s Minister of Commerce also discussed cooperation between China and Italy’s EV industries. China has been talking with individual EU member states to persuade them against voting to approve the Commission’s tariff on Chinese EV imports. Spain has already voiced concerns over the tariff and its consequences on trade relations with China.
Wang’s visit to Italy likely prepared him for the meeting with Dombrovskis later this week. China’s Ministry of Commerce has been vocal about the Commission’s provisional tariffs on Chinese EV imports. The tariff is placed on top of the EU’s 10% duty currently imposed on all EV imports.
In August, China filed an appeal with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the Commission’s tariff. The Ministry of Commerce explained that its appeal to the WTO was an attempt to “safeguard the development rights and interests of the electric vehicle industry [in the country] and cooperation over the global green transformation.”
China has repeatedly warned the EU against imposing the Commission’s provisional EV tariffs. The Commission has responded by lowering its tariff rates. Initially, the tariff rates on China-made EV imports reached a maximum of 38%. The Commission has reduced rates several times since they were provisionally enforced in July.
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