Tariffs could come into force in November after a vote in late October.

Tariffs could come into force in November after a vote in late October.

EU capitals are prepared to back the introduction of tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, Valdis Dombrovskis, the European commissioner for trade, told the Financial Times.

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Although the move sparked anger in Beijing, supporters of the levy claim it is essential to protect EU manufacturers against unfair competition.

A probe launched last year by the European Commission determined that Chinese subsidies were allowing firms to keep their prices artificially low.

  • @WaveformEnglish
    10•5 months ago

    Is anything stopping western nations from subsidizing their own EV industries to the same degree China purportedly does?

    • @[email protected]English
      3•5 months ago

      I think there are a few obstacles to that actually.

      The first is that the global financial system is structured in a way that artificially inflates the value of the Dollar and the Euro. This is great for western capital. However, it also means that domestic labor is more expensive than foreign labor which makes onshore manufacturing unprofitable.

      The second problem is that western subsidies rarely hold companies to account. The US tried to onshore semiconductor manufacturing through the CHIPS act in explicit attempt to compete with China. Only a few years later and big recipients of those subsidies are already giving up. Intel is laying if 15k employees and TSMC is delaying and scaling back their plans for a fab in Arizona. Given how much influence over politics capital owners have in western countries, I don’t see this changing anytime soon.

      Lastly, I forgot to mention but the artificial inflation of western currencies is in part maintained by their control and influence over the energy trade. Any of course by energy I mean fossil fuels. As such, if the west were to enable a global green energy transition they would be shooting themselves in the foot so to speak. This is likely part of the reason why China is investing so much in renewables. Energy independence will benefit them greatly as they won’t have to depend on an energy market dominated by western powers.

      • @WaveformEnglish
        1•5 months ago

        Thanks for the detailed info. It would be awesome if the CEOs and shareholders took a pay hit, so they could keep work here and pay them more to boot. (I haven’t run any numbers to see if it would even make a big enough difference.)

        I didn’t know the CHIPS act was having trouble. Last new I heard was that US workers supposedly didn’t have sufficient work ethic, or something. Iirc, it sounded like they didn’t want to be worked to death…