The EU imposed provisional tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. The European Commission maintains that Chinese companies unfairly benefit from public subsidies, allowing them to keep their prices low.
The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sanchezhas reached Beijingthe first stop on a trip to China that aims to reinforce what it considers a close political relationship and bilateral trade.
“Our goal is to maintain the political momentum of the bilateral relationship, fstrengthen economic and commercial relations and support Spanish culture, education and science in China“said Sánchez in a message on X.
In Beijing, Sánchez will be received by the bowed president, Xi Jinping, and will hold conversations with Prime Minister of the country, Li Qiangand the president of the Legislature, Zhao Leji.
It is scheduled to open the IX Spain-China Forum and attend a meeting Business Advisory Councilmade up of 15 Spanish companies and 21 Chinese companies.
Sánchez will then fly on Monday afternoon to Shanghaiwhere on Tuesday the Spain-China Business Meeting.
“China is willing to take advantage of President Sánchez’s visit as an opportunity to advance bilateral relations, deepen mutual trust through high-level exchanges and address global challenges through high-quality cooperation,” said the spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign MinistryMao Ning, at a press conference last week.
Trade tension between China and the European Union
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement in early September that Sánchez’s visit will end on Wednesday. The trip occurs at a delicate time for the relations between the European Union and the second world economy.
In July, the EU imposed provisional tariffs on Chinese electric vehiclesclaiming the European Commission that Chinese companies unfairly benefit from generous public subsidies which allow them to keep their prices artificially low. EU member states will vote in October on whether to make those tariffs permanent.
This led Beijing to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Chinese Ministry of Commerce stated that it had resorted to the WTO resolution mechanism “to safeguard the rights and interests of the development of the electric vehicle industry and the cooperation in ecological transformation world”.
And in June, China’s Ministry of Commerce said it had launched a anti-dumping investigation on imports of “pork and relevant pork by-products” from the European Union, a measure that paves the way for trade restrictions in a sensitive sector for the EU.
Spain, among those most affected by Chinese retaliation
In a statement, the block’s ranchers’ association, CUP-COCEGAdenied that the pork sector was engaging in anti-dumping practices and stated that Spain, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Belgium They would be the most affected by Chinese retaliation.
Spain is the largest pork exporter in Europe and in 2023 it supplied China with around 22% of its imported pork, a trade valued at €1.2 billion.
