About 87.5 percent of the respondents of a China Global Television Network (CGTN) survey voiced their opposition against the European Union's decision of imposing higher tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), saying that high tariffs will not only fail to eliminate the disputes between the two sides, but also deal a heavy blow to the healthy development of the automotive industry in EU and even around the world.
In early July, the European Commission imposed provisional additional tariffs on Chinese battery electric vehicle (BEV) makers of up to 37.6 percent. The Commission claimed that the decision was based on an investigation concluding that subsidies benefit the Chinese BEV value chain, posing an economic risk to EU producers.
China filed an appeal with the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Friday, challenging the European Union's imposition of provisional additional tariffs on imports of Chinese EVs.
The EU imposes high tariffs and implements trade protection in the name of anti-subsidy, which shows that it only focuses on its own absolute benefits, but selectively disregards the comparative advantages and the fact of joint production.
A survey launched on Sunday by CGTN for global Internet users shows that 78.42 percent of the respondents said that sufficient market competition and rapid technology iteration are the key to the rapid development of China's EV industry, rather than government subsidies.
And 85.14 percent of the respondents said that the additional costs of automakers caused by higher tariffs will eventually be borne by European consumers, while 80.74 percent of them said that the EU's decision will seriously weaken the competitiveness of the European automotive industry and undermine the China-EU cooperation on the automotive industrial chain.
In the face of the increasingly severe global climate governance challenges, EVs have become a key area for countries to promote the realization of low-carbon development goals.
In the survey, 87.96 percent of the respondents said that China's new energy industry, represented by EVs, has developed rapidly, making great contributions to the world economy and global green development, and 82.96 of them criticized the EU of using protectionism to hinder the development of the EV industry, which will weaken the efforts of countries to jointly address climate change.
Whether from the perspective of mutually beneficial trade or of joint efforts on reducing carbon Emissions, China and the EU have far more common interests than disputes.
In the survey, 92.53 percent of the respondent said that, in the era of globalization, countries have their own comparative advantages, and strengthening cooperation is the key to solving problems, while 90.84 percent of them called on China and the EU to solve trade frictions on EVs through dialog and consultation, and reach a cooperative rather than protectionist solution, so that both of them can become a stable force for world economic development and global climate governance.
The survey was launched on CGTN’s multilinquistic platforms for global English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Russian users, with 12,032 netizens voting and expressing their opinions in 24 hours.
The dispute over tariffs on EVs has also highlighted Europe's dependence on China's wind power products.
In a commentary published over the weekend, the Financial Times cited Simone Tagliapietra, a senior fellow at Brussels-based think tank Brugel, who said replacing wind turbine imports from China with pricier substitutes risks "slowing down the energy transition in Europe, as everything would become a little bit more expensive."
According to WindEurope, whose members include the region's leading turbine manufactures, Chinese manufacturers are offering prices 40 to 50 percent lower than European rivals and allowing developers to defer payments.
Global respondents criticize EU's imposition of higher tariffs on Chinese EVs
Global respondents criticize EU's imposition of higher tariffs on Chinese EVs
