This announcement clearly shows that China is determined to tax us in response to European decisions on Chinese electric vehicles,
That's obviously a sign that cognac is not out of fashion,
The relevant brandy industry within China has been substantially damaged or threatened,
The French authorities have abandoned us,
We shouldn’t underestimate how important the European market is also for China. Ultimately, the EU market provides the opportunity for the bulk of Chinese EV exports,
The European automotive industry — and especially Germany’s — lives from exports. Seventy percent of our jobs depend on it. The current decision could lead to new trade conflicts, to a spiral of protectionism, with tariffs being responded to with further tariffs. And that is a disadvantage for us,
The purpose has been to establish, or rather re-establish, a level playing field so that the goals pertaining to electric vehicles and overall green goals, let's say for the EU, can be achieved in a fair way,
The tariffs are very differentiated [according] to the company and based on the individual levels of subsidization,
The goals that we're trying to accomplish: One is to level the playing field for our industries and our workers. The second one is to ensure that the United States economy, for our workers and our producers, can stay vibrant, that especially when it comes to critical industries that we know are strategic for our collective future, that the United States can continue to be a producer, a player, and that the jobs in these industries will be good jobs,
The European Commission followed the World Trade Organization’s rules in designing the countervailing duties on Chinese electric vehicles,
We are of course quite worried, because today, China is our second-biggest market. It represents more than one-third of our volumes that are exported for more than 250 years now. Knowing that we will potentially be imposed with a tax of around 40% tomorrow — that would potentially mean the disappearance of this market, because our competitors will not be targeted with the same tax,
It is hard to judge how likely negotiations will succeed. By pressing ahead with the EV tariffs in the interim, the EU has shown that it is serious,
Given the huge oversupply or overcapacity in China and the desire and the need for a lot of Chinese companies — battery makers, EV makers — to go global, I believe the European market will still be very attractive to them,
Because France is leading the way on this policy, they will seek to target a product that concerns France exclusively,