The EU accuses China of unfair subsidies, but protects its own outdated automotive industry with import tariffs

The European Union is to impose import tariffs of between 17.7% and 38.1% on Chinese EVs, depending on the brand and its level of cooperation with an investigation to determine government subsidies each had received.

As a result, Chinese EVs, which thanks to significant injections of public money to make their companies more productive and facilitate the global transition to decarbonisation, are among the cheapest and best in the world, will soon cost Europeans more. Brussels’ move follows a similar decision by the United States, which in May announced tariffs on Chinese EVs of up to 100% to protect the ailing US motor industry.

The matter raises an interesting question: public subsidies for private companies is widely, and rightly, regarded as unfair competition, and is typically balanced by importers through tariffs, but in this case, the Chinese government is doing so to help develop technologies and sectors driving decarbonization, unlike in Europe or the United States. As a rule, I’m not in favor of putting public money into private companies, but if it’s to help global decarbonisation, I’m less inclined to protest.

We should remember that the largest government subsidies, whether in China, the United…