BEIJING : China's commerce minister expressed strong dissatisfaction in a weekend meeting with the European Union trade chief that the bloc will launch an anti-subsidy investigation into China's electric vehicles.
EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis made a four-day visit to the world's second-largest economy to reinforce the 27-member bloc's message that while it does not seek to 'decouple' from China, it has a number of concerns over its trade issues, including the prevalence of government subsidies.
The European Commission recently announced that it would investigate whether to impose tariffs to protect European producers from a 'flood' of cheaper Chinese electric vehicle imports, which it says will benefit from state subsidies.
In 2022, the EU's trade deficit with China rose to $276.6 billion from $208.4 billion a year earlier, according to Chinese customs data.