Financial Times: China has rejected an EU request to voluntarily restrict its surging exports of hybrid cars to the bloc as the two sides enter last-ditch talks to avert a trade conflict.
…Now the Commission is discussing a temporary “safeguard” trade defence measure, which could be applied even without evidence of market abuse. This would allow China to export a limited number of vehicles, with a steep new supplementary tariff applied to the rest.
The aim is to agree a number China can accept privately without retaliating, according to the diplomats. The downside would be that safeguards would also have to be applied to trading partners such as the UK, Korea and Japan, which would likely get quotas in line with their historic exports to the bloc…