ROME (Reuters) – China’s top trade official will arrive in Italy next week for talks, an Italian government source said on Wednesday, as Beijing seeks to persuade European Union members to reject proposed EU tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs).
Commerce Minister Wang Wentao is due to hold talks with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Industry Minister Adolfo Urso in Rome, the source said.
The source, who asked not to be named because the meeting has not been formally announced, said they were not aware whether Wang and the Italian ministers would discuss EV tariffs.
Italy initially supported tariffs in a non-binding vote of EU members in July, along with France and Spain.
However, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday during a visit to China that EU members and the European Commission should reconsider their positions to stave off a potential trade war.
Asked if the Italian position on the EV tariffs had changed, Urso told Reuters on the sidelines of a parliamentary question time session that he expected a negotiated solution.
“They are discussing it in Geneva at the moment,” he said in reference to the World Trade Organization, whose headquarters are in the Swiss city.
The European Commission, which oversees trade policy for the European Union, is on the verge of proposing final tariffs of up to 35.3% on EVs built in China, on top of the EU’s standard 10% car import duty.
The proposed final duties will be subject to a vote by the EU’s 27 members. They will be implemented by the end of October unless a qualified majority of 15 EU members representing 65% of the EU population vote against.
This is a high hurdle that is rarely reached, but this is a politically charged file and threatened Chinese retaliation on pork and dairy products and brandy could sway some EU nations.
(Reporting by Angelo Amante in Rome, Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
