Africa -China Review Africa -China Cooperation and Transformation
Published: June 14,2024
By Staff Writer
There is a new trade war in the air between The European countries (EU) and China over electric vehicles (EVs) sale on the European market. The European Commission published a list of protectionist duties it would charge on imports of electric vehicles from China. The EU body proposed tariffs ranging from 17.4 to 38.1 percent. However, a number of politicians and business executives opposed the Commission’s move as it does not follow World Trade Organization(WTO) rules.
On his social media platform, Germany’s federal minister for Digital and Transport Volker Wissing, said tariffs would affect German companies and their exports. “Vehicles must become cheaper through more competition, open markets and significantly better location conditions in the EU, not through trade wars and market isolation.”
The EU’s tariffs hike will open a trade war in which China is also expected to respond in equal measures, setting had tariffs for European car makers like BMW, who have manufacturing industries in China. This will not in any way help both countries. The German automotive industry president, Hildegard Mueller, observed that “the fact is that we need China to solve global problems, which applies, in particular, to successfully tackling the climate crises.”
China has made a tremendous step in mass production of electric vehicles which will make an impact on reducing reliance on vehicles that run on fossil fuels, hence reduction in carbon emissions that contaminate our environment. The hike of tariffs by the EU is driven by protectionism of the market which is seen as being dominated by China. Instead of being a solution to tackling competition, tariff increases will lead to discrimination against Chinese car makers. China is the third largest market for EU vehicle exports after the UK and the United States in 2022 according to available data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.
China’s “New Three”, namely, electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and photovoltaic products, are a solution to combating climate change which should be encouraged globally. China’s exports of these products have been in the increase. For example, regarding the new energy vehicles (NEVs) for example, China produced 9.587 million NEVs in 2023, and exported 1.203 million vehicles, accounting for only 12.7%, while Germany, Japan and the US exported 80, 50,and25 percent respectively. Ironically, western politicians and media have politicized what they call “new energy overcapacity” meaning that China’s new energy products exceed global demand, yet the three countries Germany, Japan and the US produce far more Electric Vehicles than China.
By labeling China for “overcapacity” claim that China is hurting other countries industrial development and employment by “dumping” products at a low price, these were ploys to call for protectionism measures. This is another propaganda toll to feed into the so called “China threat theory.” The primary objective is to contain China. The purpose of the tariffs increase isto curb the scientific and technological development and industrial upgrading of developing countries represented by China, so that the west maintains the global economic hegemony by unfair means. China is a vast market where also western manufacturing industries are based. Such anti-China protectionists’pretexts are bound to fail as they will affect westerncountries as well.
