The European Union has disclosed its finalized plan to impose an additional tariff of up to 36.3 percent on electric vehicles imported from China.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, made the announcement on Tuesday. The maximum rate is slightly lower than the previously proposed planned rate of up to 37.6 percent. This is in addition to the EU’s standard 10 percent duty on EV imports.
The commission adopted the provisional rate in July in response to concerns that the vehicles benefit from unfair subsidies from the Chinese government and could harm European firms.
The plan imposes a lower additional tariff of 9 percent on Tesla’s Chinese-made EV imports, due to the smaller subsidies the US company receives from the Chinese government.
The commission says the final determination will be put to a vote by member states and will be officially introduced by October 30.
China’s commerce ministry said the decision is based on facts unilaterally determined by the EU side, rather than on mutually agreed-upon facts. It said China is firmly opposed to and highly concerned about the plan and vowed to take all necessary measures to protect Chinese firms’ legitimate rights and interests.
China has announced that it filed an appeal with the World Trade Organization against the EU’s provisional tariffs on EVs on August 9.