China filed an appeal with the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Friday (August 9), challenging the European Union’s imposition of provisional additional tariffs on imports of Chinese electric vehicles (EVs).

To safeguard the development rights and interests of the EV industry and global green transformation cooperation, China appealed to the WTO dispute settlement mechanism over the EU’s provisional countervailing measures on EVs, the Ministry of Commerce said.

The EU’s preliminary ruling lacks a factual and legal basis, seriously violates WTO rules and undermines global cooperation on climate change, the ministry said.

China has urged the EU to immediately correct its wrong practices and work together to protect the stability of China-EU economic and trade cooperation as well as the EV industrial chain and supply chain, it said.

In early July, the European Commission imposed provisional additional tariffs on Chinese battery electric vehicle (BEV) makers of up to 37.6 per cent.

The commission claimed that the decision was based on an investigation concluding that subsidies benefit the Chinese BEV value chain, posing an economic risk to EU producers.