For some context, the EU is set to impose provisional tariffs of up to 38.1% on imported Chinese-made EVs starting from 4 July. This has caused quite a stir between the bloc and China in the past week or so. But over the weekend, there was a call between EU commissioner Dombrovskis and China’s commerce minister Wang. The two spoke and agreed to restart talks on trade after the most recent spat.
Today, the Global Times is reporting that China is calling for the EU to remove the above tariffs before they go into effect. That would be the “best outcome” according to Chinese officials. That said, I don’t see the EU willing to make such a concession unless there is concrete progress on what it deems as “excessive and unfair” trade policies by China.
So, another trade war blooming? Or is this going to end up being just political theater come what may?
