Workers complete assembling an electric vehicle (EV) at China's EV start-up Leapmotor in Jinhua, East China's Zhejiang Province on April 1, 2024. The smart EV factory delivered 14,567 new vehicles in March, a yearly increase of 136 percent. Photo: VCG

At the request of Chinese automaker SAIC Motor Corp, the European Commission (EC) has held a special hearing at the EU headquarters in Brussels regarding the anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese electric vehicles (EVs). During the hearing, SAIC submitted its defense against the anti-subsidy preliminary ruling, noting that it reserves the right to take further legal measures in response to the EC’s unfair preliminary ruling, according to a statement sent to the Global Times on Monday.

During the hearing on Friday, the company noted that the EC’s investigation involves commercially sensitive information, such as the request for cooperation in providing chemical formulas related to batteries, which is beyond the normal scope of the investigation. 

Moreover, the EC’s determination of subsidies was flawed, such as confusing automobile finance companies wholly owned by foreign joint venturers as SAIC’s affiliates, and including them in the calculation of subsidy rates.

In addition, SAIC has submitted thousands of pages of written materials in the course of the investigation, but the EC ignored some of the key information and defenses submitted by the company and inflated the subsidy rates of multiple items.

The company said that open competition leads to progress, while protectionism only leads to backwardness. It expressed hope that China and the EU will accelerate the cohesion of innovative forces through win-win cooperation and create global green development.

On June 12, the EC issued a pre-disclosure of preliminary ruling information, which calculated a subsidy rate of 38.1 percent for SAIC. In response to the calculation error in the pre-disclosure, the company promptly raised a plea. 

On July 4, the EC formally announced the results of the preliminary ruling, saying that the duty rate stood at 37.6 percent, and planned to impose provisional countervailing duties.

The EC is expected to make a final ruling on November 2. SAIC reserves the right to take further legal measures in response to the EC’s unfair, unreasonable and unlawful preliminary ruling, the company said.

SAIC on Thursday participated in the post-preliminary ruling hearing of the EU’s countervailing subsidy investigation against China’s EVs organized by China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products (CCCME). 

A representative from the CCCME pointed out that the EC violated WTO rules during the preliminary ruling, and the subsidy margin calculated in the current preliminary ruling did not reflect the real situation of the sampled enterprises in China.

The EC’s decision to take provisional tariff measures was strongly opposed by some EU member states, the German Association of the Automotive Industry and the major European automobile producers, which seriously harmed the interests of China and Europe, the CCCME noted.

Global Times