Beijing, China.- China announced Monday that it has initiated proceedings before the World Trade Organization (WTO) to settle a dispute with the United States over subsidies for the American electric vehicle industry.
China’s second-largest economy had brought the dispute to the WTO in March, but after negotiations with Washington failed, it asked the organization to “create a group of experts” on the issue, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced in a statement.
In 2022, the United States announced a massive aid program, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), to support companies in the energy transition sector and electric vehicles manufactured on American soil.
Under President Joe Biden, Washington was trying to respond to Beijing’s subsidies for its own industry and launch its green strategy.
The US law “establishes as a precondition for receiving subsidies that products come from specific regions, such as the United States, and excludes products from China,” lamented the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.
“No matter how one tries to package or embellish this law, it cannot change the discriminatory, protectionist and WTO-unconventional nature of the subsidies provided for in this text,” he stressed.
The WTO dispute comes as Beijing and Washington are already at odds over a range of trade issues, including tariffs, advanced technologies and the social media platform TikTok.
“We once again urge the United States to respect WTO rules and stop abusing industrial policies to undermine international cooperation on climate change,” China’s Commerce Ministry said.
Determined to curb China’s advance in the sector, the United States had already announced in May that it would quadruple tariffs on imported Chinese electric vehicles, with economic competition with China at the heart of the American presidential campaign.
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