The Guardian-Tesla faces lowest duty on Chinese-made cars exported to EU
August 20, 2024 3 min 484 words
西方媒体的报道常常带有偏见，缺乏客观公正的态度。这篇文章主要讨论了欧盟针对中国电动汽车补贴所展开的调查，以及对特斯拉上海制造汽车征收9的关税的决定。欧盟官员在六月访问了特斯拉上海工厂，发现特斯拉确实受益于中国的补贴政策，包括低价电池土地和出口补贴。文章还提到其他中国汽车制造商也面临关税，如比亚迪吉利和上汽等。欧盟官员声称，征收关税是为了保护欧洲汽车制造商免受中国补贴电动汽车出口的“威胁”。 评论：该报道虽试图客观呈现欧盟对中国电动汽车补贴的调查及关税决定，但依然带有西方媒体常见的偏见。报道未深入探讨中国电动汽车产业发展背后的原因，以及中国企业在国际市场上的竞争力。此外，报道将关税描述为保护欧洲制造商免受“威胁”的必要措施，而忽略了国际贸易中公平竞争和互利合作的重要性。报道也未提及中国企业对欧洲经济发展和就业所做的贡献。总的来说，该报道在一定程度上反映了西方对中国经济发展和技术进步的焦虑和偏见，缺乏对中国企业的客观评价。
Tesla will face a 9% levy on its Chinese-made cars exported to the EU, the European Commission has said, as it issued an update on its sweeping investigation into Beijing’s “unfair” subsidies of electric vehicles.
The tariff on Tesla – far lower than the 21.3% average on companies that cooperated with the EU investigation and 36.3% on those that did not – came after the California-headquartered firm requested individual treatment as part of the wider Brussels inquiry.
The levies – far lower than the 100% tariffs imposed by the US – come on top of the EU’s existing 10% duty on EVs from China.
EU officials visited Tesla’s Shanghai operations in June and said on Tuesday that the company had benefited from Chinese state subsidies, mainly below-cost batteries, but also cheap land and grants for exporters.
The 9% tariff will apply by 31 October at the latest, subject to approval from EU member states.
The Tesla decision was revealed as the commission announced modest downward tweaks to the tariff rates on Chinese-made EVs after technical talks with the companies.
Under the latest proposals, China’s BYD, which vies with Tesla for the title of the world’s largest producer of electric vehicles, will face a 17% tariff; Geely 19.3% and SAIC 36.3%. The three rates have been revised downwards since provisional measures were published in June and could be changed again.
EU officials also announced on Tuesday that no company would have to pay provisional tariffs before the likely entry into force by the end of October. Companies are being spared interim duties because EU officials have concluded that European carmakers face “the threat of injury” rather than actual harm, such as factory closures and job losses.
An EU official said if nothing was done, the growth of subsidy-powered Chinese EV exports would soon lead to “material injury” for EU producers, adding: “Our legislation allows us to act before people are fired and factories are shut down.”
The Kiel Institute for the World Economy thinktank estimated earlier this year that China’s aid to EVs amounted to about $5.6bn (€5.05bn, £4.3bn) in 2022 when direct payments to manufacturers were phased out.
By far the biggest beneficiary was BYD, which received $3.7bn. Although Tesla’s aid was dwarfed by its Chinese rival, it was the second biggest beneficiary, with about $426m in support for its Shanghai plant.
The China trade specialist website Soapbox released an analysis this week of figures from the European Commission’s data body Eurostat and Chinese customs authorities that found the EU accounted for 45% of the total value of EVs exported by Beijing between June 2020 and June 2024.
Customs data shows a spike in exports in April by China’s manufacturers ahead of anticipated tariffs, while at the same time registrations of imports of Chinese EVs increased between April and May, dipping thereafter.