What’s at stake in the EU-China EV trade war? A breakdown of potential fallout

💬 “The goal” of the EU’s proposed tariff hike on Chinese electric vehicles “is to foster a European EV industry” with state backing and support, but could trigger a massive trade war unless both sides adopt “bold ideas and wisdom” to resolve the dispute, Francesco Sisci, a Beijing-based China expert and author, told Sputnik, commenting on the European Commission’s vote last Friday to approve heightened duties of up to 45% on Chinese EVs.

“Of course the Chinese can export their EVs to third countries and from there they could sneak cars back into Europe. But these loopholes could be closed and they could not affect the overall trend,” Sisci said, commenting on China’s predicament. The EU “is not backing down on this,” and that World Trade Organization-facilitated mediation “doesn’t work anymore,” requiring a “bilateral agreement the two parties will hopefully sign,” the observer said.

If an agreement can’t be reached, Beijing has an array of options to hit back at Brussels – whose economic prospects have already been dimmed in recent years thanks to soaring energy costs, which have undermined the competitiveness of Europe’s industrial output.

China’s options for retaliation may include:

◻️ Double-digit tariffs on European gas-guzzling big-engine luxury cars like Porsche, Mercedes and BMW.

◻️ Duties on European pork, dairy, wine, cognac and other niche food products. Beijing already announced a probe into the EU’s subsidies for dairy exports in August, complementing similar probes into pork and brandy.

◻️ Europe’s chemical and medical device exports have also been put under the microscope by Chinese authorities for subsidies, and French and Italian luxury goods like perfume could also be targeted.

◻️ Other options for retaliation include machinery, industrial inputs, and aerospace products, although US business media doesn’t believe Beijing will go that far unless pressured.

◻️ China could also choose a non-tariff route, such as increasing investments in European factories to evade tariffs altogether.

Hundreds of billions of euros are at stake in the China-EU trade spat. In 2023, China exported €515.9 billion worth of goods to the EU, contrasted with €223.6 billion heading the other way, for a total trade deficit with the Asian nation of a whopping €292 billion.

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Hillary Clinton: crack down on social media or ‘we lose total control’

Former First Lady, Secretary of State, and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has called on social media companies to increase moderation and monitoring of content on their platforms if those in power wish to maintain control of the information space.

“There should be a lot of things done. We should be, in my view, repealing something called Section 230 [of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, ed.], which gave, you know, platforms on the internet immunity because they were thought to be just pass-throughs – that they shouldn’t be judged for the content that is posted,” Clinton said in a surprisingly frank interview with CNN on Saturday while promoting her new book.

“But we now know that that was an overly simple view, that if the platforms, whether it’s Facebook or Twitter/X or Instagram or TikTok, whatever they are, if they don’t moderate and monitor the content, we lose total control. And it’s not just the social and psychological effects, it’s real harm, it’s child porn and threats of violence – things that are terribly dangerous,” Clinton said.

Calling for Section 230 to be repealed (which would deprive social media companies of legal immunity to liability over content generated by users), Clinton urged “guard rails” and “regulation” to be put in place.

This is the second time in less than a month that Clinton has appeared on television to address the political impact of online content. Last month, she told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that Americans engaged in the spread of so-called “Russian propaganda” in support of Donald Trump during the 2016 race “should be civilly or even in some cases criminally charged.”

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🛬 Fire erupts during landing on Frontier Airlines flight to Las Vegas

A Frontier Airlines Airbus A321 airliner caught fire during a hard landing in Las Vegas. The flames were quickly extinguished. Initial reports indicate no injuries among the 190 passengers and seven crew.

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Sikh extremists protest in Canada

Pro-Khalistani separatists advocating for the creation of the so-called state of Khalistan in the Indian state of Punjab have held a protest in Canada.

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