The bloc’s trade arm has been investigating suspected Chinese subsidies to its electric vehicle makers and is set to announce duties to balance off the effect on the EU manufacturers. The timeline for the probe, announced by von der Leyen last fall, is however bound by a number of legal restrictions and deadlines.
Several trade lawyers POLITICO spoke to doubted that it was possible to delay the announcement beyond June 6, as the anti-subsidy investigation rules spell out that companies need to be informed four weeks ahead of the first round of duties that should enter force by July 4.
“I don’t know of any case that did not respect the four weeks. But this is not a normal case, of course,” one Brussels-based trade lawyer said.
A three-week buffer period is also mentioned in the law, which could offer the Commission a legal avenue to push back the highly sensitive announcement until after the European election. The lawyers also explained that violating either deadline would probably not result in a court overturning the duties themselves.
China has signaled its strong displeasure at the probe into its burgeoning EV industry, whose EU sales hit €10 billion last year. It has already launched an anti-dumping probe into European brandies — a move clearly targeting French cognacs — and state media speculate that it could retaliate against European luxury cars and pork meat next.
Camille Gijs, Antonia Zimmermann and Laura Hülsemann contributed reporting.