Official: EC’s temporary tariffs on Chinese electric cars bad for European customers
The European Commission is implementing temporary punitive tariffs on electric cars imported from China, a government commissioner noted on Facebook on Friday, adding that the decision was "certainly not good for European customers".
Istvan Joo, who is also the head of national investment promotion agency HIPA, said the tariffs hampered competition when it came to price and quality and would harm Europe’s car industry, especially German companies manufacturing in China. Further, the measure would hold back research and development as protectionism “does not help these processes”.
Moreover, economic ties between Europe and China would suffer, he said, insisting that the EC was acting willfully and its policy was not supported by the biggest automotive industry players.
“Hopefully the measure genuinely will be temporary,” Joo wrote.
