Europe gives China a taste of its own trade medicine
www.politico.eu
Europe is using the threat of tariffs to press Chinese electric car makers to set up in the EU and share know-how.

The EU is having a radical rethink of how to cope with the trade threat from Beijing — and its response has a very Chinese flavor to it.

Over the past years, EU trade policy has traditionally focused on building protective fortress walls, and last week’s decision to impose punitive tariffs on Chinese electric cars initially looked like another example of the classic defensive playbook in Brussels.

In a remarkable turn of events, however, the EU is now considering a next step that invites China’s electric vehicle (EV) makers inside the walls.

The big idea is to use the tariff threat to force Chinese carmakers to come to Europe to form joint ventures and share technology with their EU counterparts, according to conversations with four diplomats and two senior officials.

There are signs the formula is already attractive with EU carmakers. Franco-American-Italian carmaker Stellantis has formed a joint venture with China’s Leapmotor to start Europe operations in September. Spain’s EBRO-EV has teamed up with Chery — China’s fifth-largest automotive company — to develop EVs in Barcelona.

  • schizoidmanEnglish
    92·
    6 months ago

    So Europe went from suggesting decoupling from China to de-risking and now this?

    • bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      61·
      6 months ago

      You can’t decouple from 15% of the world’s population/one of the most powerful economies in the world. That was always chest pounding and frankly it was unproductive.

      The “fortress” mentality described in the article does not work in the long run unless you are dealing with smaller (and frankly, poorer) countries. And even then they can prove resilient, especially if you can’t get enough other countries on board.