China should do more to stimulate domestic consumption, European businesses have declared, saying huge investment in electric vehicle capacity has caused “understandable” concern in the EU.
The EU last week announced an anti-subsidy probe over concerns Chinese exports could swamp its automotive industry as they previously did its solar panel sector.
China’s policymakers have emphasised boosting manufacturing and exports, particularly of electric vehicles, rather than supporting consumers as a way of bolstering its pandemic-damaged economy.
“Because of overcapacity outside of Europe, the European solar panel market was more or less obliterated,” said Jens Eskelund, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China.
“So I think it’s understandable that in Europe there would be a certain concern about what is happening,” Eskelund said at the release of the chamber’s annual position paper on China. “Why do we see this rapid scale-up in [EV] production, which is significantly . . . overshooting any . . . presently anticipated demand in the market?”