(Yicai) June 24 -- China and the European Union have agreed to hold talks on the higher tariffs that the EU plans to impose on imports of Chinese electric vehicles.

Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis agreed to the talks on June 22, the commerce ministry announced the same day.

Following an anti-subsidy investigation, the European Commission said on June 12 that it had “provisionally concluded” that China’s battery electric value chain benefits from unfair subsidies, causing a threat of economic injury to the EU’s electric carmakers. It proceeded to levy additional import duties on Chinese EVs ranging from 17.4 percent to 38.1 percent, with effect from July 4.

The EU launched the probe without applying to its member countries or the EV industry, and its improper behavior during the investigation violated World Trade Organization rules, Wang said, adding that China urged the EU to resolve differences through dialogue and consultations to avoid an escalation of trade frictions.

On June 22, Wang also met with Robert Habeck, Germany’s vice chancellor and economy minister. Wang expressed the hope that Germany would play a positive role in the negotiations.

Tariffs are the last resort of political measures, and Germany agree on resolving issues through dialogue, Habeck said. The German government believes the EU’s tariffs on imported China-made EVs will hurt Europe’s green transformation and consumer interests and is worried that the interests of German carmakers in China will be hurt as well, he added.

China will take necessary actions if the talks fail, including filing a lawsuit to the WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism, Wang pointed out.

If China and the EU can resolve the issue under the WTO’s legal framework, the multilateral trade system will be protected, said Cui Fan, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics and head of research at the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies.

China and the EU are members of the WTO’s Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement -- a temporary mechanism set up to maintain a functioning appeals system for trade disputes within the WTO framework -- and have experience in resolving differences, Cui noted.

The EU has issued 31 policies to restrict trade with and investment in China this year and initiated investigations against China under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation and the International Procurement Instrument, according to a commerce ministry spokesperson. They are tools the EU created to address specific issues related to trade and investment involving non-EU countries.

Editor: Futura Costaglione