新闻来源：www.bloomberg.com
原文地址：Chinese EVs: Germany Lines Up With Spain Against EU Tariffs
新闻日期：2024-09-11
欧洲领导人陆续访问习近平，自欧盟宣布拟对中国新能源汽车征收近50%的关税以来。西班牙总理桑切斯本周成为第一个要求重新考虑这一贸易措施的人。桑切斯将自己置于一个罕见的政治地缘经济复杂局面之中，这位首相通常更倾向于与欧盟主流保持一致。本月稍后，欧洲各国将在最终投票决定是否实施这些关税。如果15个成员国代表65%的欧盟人口反对这项新关税，那么欧洲委员会——即该联盟的执行机构——将不得不放弃这一措施。“我必须坦诚地告诉你，我们必须重新考虑——不仅是成员国，还包括委员会——我们对这一行动的立场。”桑切斯在周三于中国昆山举行的记者会上说。德国政府发言人施泰芬·赫贝斯特莱特对此表示欢迎，称“西班牙的决定方向与我们的看法是一致的”。考虑到来自欧盟两个最大成员国的反对意见，委员会将不得不注意此事，并这可能会影响执行机构在与中国进行的相关谈判。
一名支持关税的资深欧洲外交官说，他们认为仍有多数成员国支持这项关税，讨论将继续以说服西班牙支持欧盟委员会这一问题。前欧洲央行行长、意大利人德拉吉本周表示，在介绍他为增强欧盟竞争力提出的计划时，他认为“中国政府主导的竞争”对欧盟产业构成了威胁。
桑切斯的表态让一些在布鲁塞尔和欧洲首都的官员感到惊讶，因为这位首相很少与欧盟产生分歧，而且据说他与冯德莱恩有着良好的工作关系。在访问中国之前，接近桑切斯的人表示，他希望此次访问能促成中资企业在西班牙的投资以发展该国的电动汽车产业——这也是桑切斯本周访问中国的其中一个主要目标。“我这次来访的一个重要目标是吸引中国的投资到西班牙，在我们的国家建立供应链。”他在周三举行的记者会上说。
朔尔茨去年在宣布关税计划时也持类似观点，对彭博社表示“我们想在中国、北美、日本、非洲和南美等地销售汽车。这也意味着我们也愿意接受其他国家的汽车”。德国和西班牙并非唯一对欧盟立场持怀疑态度的国家。瑞典首相乌尔夫·克里斯特松也反对在对中国贸易上采取强硬立场。今年5月，他曾表示欧盟不应“拆散全球贸易”，并称“在德国和瑞典这样的工业国之间形成贸易战不是办法。”
据知情人士透露，中国与欧盟官员计划在本月晚些时候会面，以期在关税生效前达成一项协议。但欧盟表示，任何解决方案都必须符合世贸组织规则，并解决补贴问题，这可能使达成协议变得更加困难。各国需在10月底前对是否实施关税进行投票表决。如果未能获得必要的多数票，则委员会将在10月30日发布最终的关税规定。关税将从生效之日起五年内继续有效。
中国一直采取利用欧盟内部分歧来推进自己利益的策略。5月，习近平访问法国与马克龙会面，并与其举行了一天的友好的交流活动——这被视为试图在欧洲内部制造分歧的努力。中国希望说服足够多的欧洲国家认为关税不是个好主意，从而让这些国家反对或稀释最终征收的关税。希望通过反制威胁带来的痛苦来促使各国政府说服欧盟降低姿态。
原文摘要：
German Chancellor joined Spanish Prime Minister in calling for the European Union to drop its plan to impose extra tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, potentially undercutting the bloc’s primary tool for pushing back against Beijing’s state-backed industry.A procession of European leaders have visited President since the EU announced that it would hit Chinese EVs with duties of nearly 50%, but Sanchez this week became the first to demand a rethink to the impending trade measures. Sanchez thrust himself into the middle of a geopolitical minefield, a rare position for the premier who typically aligns with the EU mainstream. EU countries are due to give a final nod next month on whether to move forward with the tariffs. If 15 member states representing 65% of the EU’s population vote against the new duties, then the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, would be forced to shelve the measure.“I have to be blunt and frank with you that we need to reconsider — all of us, not only member states but also the commission — our position toward this movement,” Sanchez told reporters Wednesday in Kunshan, China. German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit welcomed the Spanish move, saying “the direction of travel is one that we share.” Given the opposition from two of the EU’s largest member states, the commission will have to take notice, and that could affect how the executive arm conducts the ongoing talks with China on the matter. One senior European diplomat from a country backing the tariffs said they believed that there is still a majority of member states who support the tariffs and that discussions would continue to convince Spain of the need to support the European Commission on this issue. Former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi this week said that China’s “state-sponsored competition” poses a threat to EU industries as he presented his blueprint for boosting the bloc’s competitiveness. Xi has long sought to drive a wedge between western allies in order to further China’s geopolitical ambitions, particularly since Commission President announced the investigation a year ago. She argued that Chinese companies were unfairly benefiting from state subsidies and were flooding Europe with excess production.Sanchez’s comments surprised some officials in European capitals and in Brussels, since the premier rarely clashes with the EU and he is said to have a good working relationship with von der Leyen. Ahead of his trip to China, officials close to Sanchez said the premier wanted to work as a bridge to avoid a trade war, but that Spain would always align with the broader EU positions. Germany and Spain both have massive financial incentives to avoid a spiral of tit-for-tat restrictions. German automakers including Volkswagen AG and BMW AG would be hit hardest in a trade spat, as they collectively sold 4.6 million cars there in 2022. Spain is the EU’s second largest car-manufacturer and is seeking to attract investments from China to develop its EV industry — part of the reason behind Sanchez’s trip there this week. “One of my main targets in this visit was to attract Chinese investments to Spain” in the electric vehicle industry “for those investments to build supply chains in our country,” Sanchez said in Wednesday’s press conference, shortly before commenting on the tariffs.Scholz struck a similar line last year after the tariffs were announced, saying in a Bloomberg that “we want to sell our cars in Europe, in North America, in Japan, in China, in Africa, in South America, in all the places. But this means that we are also open to get the cars from other countries.” Germany and Spain aren’t the only countries that are skeptical of the EU’s stance. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has also against taking a hard line on China trade. In May, he said the EU shouldn’t “dismantle global trade,” and that “a wider trade war where we block each other’s products is not the way to go for industrial nations such as Germany and Sweden.” Chinese and EU officials are expected to meet later this month to see if they can reach an agreement before the tariffs come into effect, according to a person familiar with the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity. But the EU has said that any such solution needs to comply with World Trade Organization rules and address the underlying issue of subsidies, which could make a deal difficult to reach. Member states will have to vote before the end of October on moving forward with the tariffs. If a qualified majority fails to block the measures, then the commission will publish a final regulation on the tariffs by Oct. 30. The duties would then remain in effect for five years.China has had a long-held strategy of taking advantage of divisions within the EU to advance its own interests. A trip to France by Xi in May for talks and a day of bonhomie with Macron — whose country has been a key supporter of the EV probe — was seen as an effort to sew division within the bloc. A Chinese probe into EU pork shipments could be particularly damaging to Spain. China’s goal is to convince enough European countries that the tariffs are a bad idea so they will oppose or water down the final levies. The hope is that the threat of retaliation generates enough pain in those countries to pressure their governments to persuade the EU to back down.
