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Less than a month after Washington quadrupled duties for Chinese
EVs to 100%, Brussels said it would set tariffs of 17.4% for BYD,
20% for Geely and 38.1% for SAIC over what it said were
excessive subsidies.
China's commerce ministry said it would closely monitor the
development and resolutely take all necessary measures to
safeguard the legitimate rights of Chinese companies.
The EU provisional duties are set to apply by July 4, with the
anti-subsidy investigation set to continue until Nov. 2, when
definitive duties, typically for five years, could apply.
The Commission said it would apply rates of 21% for companies
deemed to have cooperated with the investigation and of 38.1%
for those it said had not.
The new tariffs will come on top of the existing EU tariff of
10%. Western producers such as Tesla and BMW that export cars
from China to Europe were considered cooperating companies.
Margaritis Schinas, a Commission vice president, told a news
conference that Chinese-built cars were benefiting from unfair
levels of subsidies, threatening EU producers.
"On this basis the Commission has reached out to Chinese
authorities to discuss these findings and explore possible ways
for resolving the issues identified," he told a news conference.
The indicative tariffs are above expectations of analysts of
between 10% and 25% on Chinese EVs.
BYD, Geely, SAIC and Tesla did not immediately respond to
Reuters' queries on the report.
The move comes as European automakers are being challenged by an
influx of lower-cost EVs from Chinese rivals.
China has rebuked the EU over the anti-subsidy investigation,
urged cooperation and lobbied individual EU countries, but not
fully spelt out what its response to tariffs would be.
(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsp, Jan Strupczewski, Disha Mishra
and Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru; Editing by Kim Coghill,
Jamie Freed and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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