But are we sure that the problem with China is the car? And – above all – that the institution of new duties and the transition to protectionism are the right recipe?
Michael Schumann, president of the German Association for Economic Development and Foreign Trade, Bwa, is right, in an interview with the Xinhua agency (well it is controlled by the people’s government and if he had said that the duties were good they would not have published…) branded the same tariffs for Chinese cars in Europe as “a wrong signal at the wrong time”.
“Competition, especially with low-priced models (from China), would accelerate our progress towards our goals,” Schumann said, arguing that such competition would benefit both the auto industry and consumers, reduce carbon emissions and would facilitate the transition to electric vehicles.
It’s hard to blame him. Also because in our Western culture the “made in China” brand is a mark of infamy. It is no coincidence that it was born in the USA during the Cold War to negatively indicate Chinese products, considered unsafe and coming from a socialist state. But today it is no longer a question of propaganda but of real economic risk. Mario Draghi explained it well a couple of months ago, explaining that Europe risks finding itself “permanently dependent” on the United States and China in sectors (very important in the coming decades), such as digital, green and defense.
Today everyone talks about cars but it’s really the least of the problems. This was certified by the European Commission itself which published a report – the most detailed ever produced to date – on the real dangers based on customs data. Well, in the EU they surveyed 5,400 products with 546 “dependencies”, which analysts then limited to 204, narrowing the field to critical sectors such as healthcare, security, green transition and digital transition.
We are talking about mineral products, from nickel to silicon, from uranium to rare earths. Of semi-finished products for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry (such as amino acids and alkaloids). Or key elements for mechanics and electrical, from turbines to LED bulbs to solar panels from smartphones to radio receivers. In short, we think about the car. But there are many sectors where addiction is already an emergency. And here if the EU does not intervene with the directive on critical raw materials, with the “Net Zero” one on the green transition, with the one on microchips there will be trouble.
The problem, as usual, is funding. Brussels has allocated significant resources for this (over 100 billion potential until 2027, mostly from the Pnrr), then allocating another 30 billion for research and 8 for the industrial part. But unlike China which behaves as one man, the EU does not have common purchasing mechanisms, real synergies between various states. And so at the moment the 27 countries are “working” against China independently. Or rather, worse, often even in competition. The main road to becoming even more dependent.
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