(Yicai) Aug. 21 -- China's Ministry of Commerce and the China Chamber of Commerce to the European Union have condemned the EU's additional tariffs on electric vehicles imported from China.

China opposes the European Commission's plan to impose additional import duties of up to 36.3 percent on China-made EVs and will take all necessary actions to defend the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies, a spokesperson from the MOC said yesterday.

At the beginning of July, the EC imposed provisional additional tariffs of 17.4 percent to 37.6 percent on imported Chinese EVs after an anti-subsidy investigation launched in October last year. Yesterday, the EC published a draft plan to make such tariffs definitive at slightly revised rates. The final ruling is expected by Nov. 4.

According to the draft, the EC would lower the additional duties on EVs made by BYD, Geely Automobile Holdings, and SAIC Motor to 17 percent from 17.4 percent, 19.3 percent from 19.9 percent, and 36.3 percent from 37.6 percent, respectively. However, the tariffs on Tesla's China-made EVs will be slashed to 9 percent from 20.8 percent.

The EC and the Chinese commerce ministry have held more than 10 rounds of technical consultations on the additional import duty case since the end of June, the MOC spokesperson noted, calling on the EU to take measures to prevent the escalation of trade disputes.

The EC's anti-subsidy investigation process on Chinese EVs did not comply with the rules of the World Trade Organization and is an act of "unfair competition" under the guise of "fair competition," according to the spokesperson.

The development of the European automotive industry and the EC's report show that there is no sufficient evidence to prove that Chinese EVs are causing significant material injury to the European market, the CCCEU said yesterday. The EC's plan to introduce trade defense measures goes against WTO rules, which is unacceptable, the CCCEU added.

China's advantage in EV manufacturing is not based on subsidies but on the industry scale, complete supply chain, and fierce market competition, the CCCEU pointed out.

China took the EU's provisional countervailing measures on the import of Chinese EVs to the WTO dispute settlement mechanism on Aug. 9, a spokesperson for the MOC disclosed before.

Editor: Futura Costaglione