Chinese carmakers and industry associations provided “opinions and suggestions” to commerce officials in a closed-door meeting on Friday as Beijing considered raising import tariffs on large engine petrol-powered vehicles. The move is viewed as the latest tit-for-tat response to the European Union’s tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs). The ministry said officials had “listened to the opinions and suggestions of industry, experts and scholars on raising the import tariffs on fuel-powered cars with large displacement engines”, according to its online statement.
“The timing of the action basically suggests that this is a response to the EU tariff on made-in-China EVs,” said Gary Ng, senior economist at Natixis Corporate and Investment Bank. “China might hope for a product that probably is less painful for itself and probably affects some of the EU countries a bit more than the others. So this is more like targeting the advantage of the others.
” In an article posted by state broadcaster CCTV in June, Chinese producers had called for import tariffs on European cars during a closed-door meeting attended by Chinese trade officials in Brussels earlier that month. And in a separate CCTV article in June, Cui Fan, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics, had suggested raising import tariff on European cars to 25 per cent, which he said would be in line with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. 02:03 Chinese-made electric vehic.