Grzegorz W. Kolodko, former deputy prime minister of Poland, has expressed his concerns over the European Union's new duties on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), warning the move could result in a lose-lose trade conflict.
The European Commission, the executive arm of the 27-nation EU, announced on Tuesday that it had concluded its anti-subsidy investigation and decided to impose a definitive countervailing duty on imports of new battery EVs imported from China for a period of five years.
The sampled Chinese companies will be subject to different countervailing duties, specifically, 17.0 percent on BYD, 18.8 percent on Geely, and 35.3 percent on SAIC.
In an exclusive interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Kolodko said the EU's decision is rooted in misconception.
"Definitely, I'm not in favor of these duties. I don't buy this concept of China's overcapacity in general or in an industry. I think basically this is the problem that China has become, to the surprise of many, yet they shouldn't be surprised because China's electric vehicle, they are the result of long term deliberate the industrial policy. We should know that China is coming into the market. Maybe it is still a shock for somebody that has come in such short period of time and with such competitive high technology. But I think it's an economic policy mistake which is driven basically by Sino-sceptic sentiment and on the other hand also by concern about motor car industries which are not competitive enough," said Kolodko, who is also a distinguished professor at the Belt and Road School of Beijing Normal University.
"We should get rid of these import duties because as I'm saying also in different situations, action provokes a reaction. We, I mean the European Union, has imposed import duties for China's electric vehicles, so China reacted. So trade war in the longer run backfires. It is never positive for the parties involved. The question actually is not if you have a trade war -- and now we have a kind of trade war between U.S. and China and now also unfortunately European Union and China -- the question is not who is going to win but who is going to lose less. So the outcome is a negative one," he said.
Kolodko emphasized the importance of all parties working together to achieve mutual benefit, noting that he still takes an optimistic outlook for the long term.
"The future consists -- not divided but consists of the Euroatlantic megasphere and Eurasian megasphere, and the European Union is a part of both. We are the part of the Euratlantic, but we are also a part of Eurasia. So from this perspective, the European Union, Poland, we should not take part in the ongoing tug-of-war conflict, debates between the U.S. and China. We should not take a side - pro or anti. We should to work together with both on the behalf of our economies, on behalf of our people. Maybe this is what you mean in China by win-win globalization. Win-win globalization has a good future, but the good future will happen after quite a difficult future in the short term," said the former Polish prime minister.
Former Polish Deputy PM warns against EU tariffs on Chinese EVs
