EU Proposes Minimum Price for Chinese EVs to Replace Anti-Subsidy Tariffs

On January 14, China's Ministry of Commerce announced that after multiple rounds of negotiations, the European Union will issue "Guidelines on Submitting Price Undertaking Applications," proposing to establish model- and configuration-specific Minimum Import Prices (MIPs) for Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) as a replacement for the current countervailing duties. The mechanism will be based either on historical export prices from companies plus the tariff differential or on the prices of comparable EVs sold locally in the EU, and will initially apply to all battery-electric vehicle models to prevent price manipulation. If a Chinese automaker’s proposed price undertaking is accepted by the EU, it will be exempt from paying countervailing duties. The China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products noted that this measure would allow tariffs previously collected by EU customs to instead become profits retained by the automakers themselves. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers stated that, overall, this development will benefit Chinese automakers exporting to the EU market.