The European Commission decides to levy on imports of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) from China, seeing concerns from European governments and industry associations.

Tariffs would affect German companies

"Vehicles must become cheaper through more competition, open markets and significantly better location conditions in the EU, not through trade wars and market isolation," said Dr. Volker Wissing, Germany's Federal Minister for Digital and Transport, on the social media platform X. He said that tariffs would affect German companies and their exports.

In a written interview, Hildegard Mueller, President of the German Association of the Automotive Industry, told Xinhua News Agency that the potential fallout originating from these measures may be greater than their potential benefits for the European - as well as the German - automotive industry.

"The fact is that we need China to solve global problems, which applies, in particular, to successfully tackling the climate crises," Mueller said. He commented that EU's high additional tariffs could quickly have negative impact in the likelihood of a trade conflict.

German automotive industry would be affected by the EU tariff on Chinese EVs. (Source: Volkswagen)

Consumers have to pay the high cost

"We are generally skeptical of tariffs. Someone has to pay them, and in this case, it will sooner or later be the consumers," the Swedish TT news agency cited Johan Forssell, Sweden's Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, as saying, according to Xinhua.

Hrvoje Steve Prpic, President of the Croatian Electric Vehicle Drivers Association, said the high tariffs would fail to help European automotive industry keep up the pace of Chinese automakers, and moreover, the end users in Europe would face the increased cost, reports Xinhua.

Meanwhile, in a statement, Marton Nagy, Minister for National Economy of Hungary, said " exaggerated protectionism is not the solution". Hungary does not agree with a European Commission proposal to impose “brutal” tariffs on Chinese EV manufacturers.