cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/249116
Here is the study (pdf)
Although Chinese companies are seen as innovative, government subsidies that violate the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are also thought to be behind the high competitive pressure.
German firms estimate the probability of a trade war with China due to the Taiwan conflict in the next ten years to be high at around 70 per cent.
The companies’ approval rates for tariffs on subsidized Chinese e-cars and the possible prevention of sensitive technology transfer, which threatens to transfer high technology from German companies to the Chinese military, are also remarkably high.
- Around 80 per cent of German companies consider tariffs on Chinese products, including e-cars, as justified or partially justified, according to a survey by The German Economic Institute in Cologne. The business community’s high approval rates for a tougher approach towards China are based on threats its technology could be used by China for military purposes and the “extraordinarily high and widespread subsidies in China”, which suggests that “the ability of Chinese firms to offer much lower prices is not the result of fair competition alone”, the study authors says.
- “The use of trade defense instruments has nothing to do with protectionism,” the study says, adding that “these instruments are legitimized by the World Trade Organization (WTO)”. The aim of an anti-subsidy investigation is precisely to distinguish between fair and unfair (subsidy-induced) competitive pressure.
- “Given the lack of transparency of subsidies in Chinese state capitalism, [subsidy investigation] is a certain challenge,” the researcher say. However, should the EU investigation infer subsidies that are higher than in reality, China would have the opportunity to provide evidence to the contrary.
- For now, however, “China’s subsidization is a violation of the rules and ultimately a protectionist measure”. The researchers add: “All too often, statements by high-ranking German politicians suggest that the EU and Germany are putting themselves in the wrong by using anti-subsidy measures. The opposite is the case.”
- At least half of the companies (this also applies to the various depicted subgroups) state that Chinese competitors offering comparable products undercut their prices by more than 20 per cent. Chinese companies even enter the market with prices that are more than 30 per cent lower than those of the companies surveyed. This applies to 63 per cent of companies that feel strong competitive pressure from China, but also to 37 per cent of innovative companies, i.e. firms that continuously conduct research and development.
- China’s subsidy regime has consequences for industrial employment in Germany, the researchers claim. Although Chinese companies are seen as innovative, government subsidies are also thought to be behind the high competitive pressure.
- The researchers add that in view of China’s export offensive, it is “important to show that the EU is prepared, if necessary, to use its toolbox against Chinese distortions of competition and Chinese threats”.
German companies support tariffs on Chinese products
Well, duh! It would be great for the bottom line of the German companies to have less competition.
Awful for the German consumers and the Chinese workers who’d be the ones actually bearing the burdens of the tariffs, though.
What a rubbish! It’s awful that the enslaved Chinese workers in Xinjiang and elsewhere in China actually are bearing the burdens of Chinese cheap cars.
Guess what: Chinese cars aren’t even made in Xinjiang.
Politicians are just conflating two completely unrelated issues to drum up support for eliminating the supply of cheaper in demand products that consumers prefer over the overly expensive choices from the Western owner donors.
We agree that the ethnic cleansing and slavery in Xinjiang is absolutely abhorrent and that workers throughout China should have much better wages and conditions, but this would have no effect on the former and devastatingly negative consequences for the latter.
Chinese cars aren’t even made in Xinjiang.
First, your statement is outright false, one example being the plant operated until recently by a subsidiary of SAIC-Volkswagen near Urumqi, the capital of China’s Xinjiang Region. Volkswagen had to leave the joint venture with SAIC exactly over forced labour allegations.
And second, even if true it wouldn’t matter as forced labour in China doesn’t just take place in Xinjiang alone. There are many other examples across the country.
[Edit typo.]
Their components most certainly are. Most of the inexpensive products imported from China are produced by the forced labor of the Uyghurs. Batteries, motors, and electronics for EVs are included.
https://www.state.gov/forced-labor-in-chinas-xinjiang-region/