(Yicai) July 8 -- The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers is disappointed at and cannot accept the European Commission’s provisional countervailing duties on imports of electric vehicles from China.

The European Commission ignored the facts and insisted there are “high subsidies” to Chinese EV makers in its preliminary ruling, which will harm the European Union’s EV market, the CAAM said on its WeChat account yesterday.

The CAAM hopes the European Commission will not see the current stage of automobile trade as a long-term threat to the industry’s development, politicize economic and trade issues, and abuse trade relief measures.

The European Commission should avoid damaging and distorting the global automotive industry and supply chain to maintain a fair, non-discriminatory, and predictable market environment, the CAAM noted.

Last October, the European Commission launched a countervailing investigation into imports of EVs from China, requesting Chinese carmakers to submit documents according to requirements. On June 12, it released the preliminary ruling that imposed provisional countervailing duties ranging from 17.4 percent to 38.1 percent on China-made EVs to offset local subsidies.

“The type, scope, and quantity of information collected by the European side was unprecedented and far exceeded what is required for a countervailing duties investigation,” a commerce ministry spokesperson said at a press conference on June 20 when asked about a report that the EU used the probe to “snoop” on the tech secrets of Chinese automakers.

The European Commission preset the investigation results, tendentiously elected the companies to sample from, abused its power to expand the scope of the investigation, and distorted its results, the CAAM pointed out.

Editor: Futura Costaglione