Tariff wars usually start loudly but end quietly. This is also the case in the battle over electric cars between China and the EU. In autumn 2023, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that she wanted to take action against imports of electric cars from China with tariffs. “The world markets are being flooded with cheap Chinese electric cars. Their price is being artificially depressed by huge government subsidies,” the politician said at the time in front of the European Parliament. The EU is open to competition, but not to an unequal race to the bottom.
