Trade rules on Chinese electric vehicles should be fair and science-based: German environment official

Dirk Messner tells Beijing event that erosion of trust and move away from international order is threatening the world’s climate goals

Speaking later to the Post, he also called on EU and US to take their concerns over Chinese electric vehicles to the World Trade Organization

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Dirk Messner, president of Germany’s Environment Agency, said the European Union should rely on “fair, science and rule-based mechanisms” to resolve trade disputes on green products, like electric vehicles.
Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 8:00pm, 5 Jun 2024Updated: 10:10am, 27 Sep 2024

With China and the European Union on the cusp of a trade war over alleged state subsidies for Chinese-made electric vehicles, a senior German environment official has spoken in Beijing on the need for stronger multilateral ties to fight climate change.

In a speech at the German embassy on Friday, Dirk Messner, president of Germany’s Environment Agency, said that climate neutrality would not be achieved without overcoming the current state of geopolitical challenges.

Speaking to the South China Morning Post after the event, Messner also called for trade disputes, such as the China-EU confrontation over EVs and Washington’s recent 100 per cent tariff increase on Chinese electric vehicles – to be resolved through the World Trade Organization.

In his embassy address, Messner said the world is encountering “an erosion of trust and a move away from international order”, emphasising that he wanted to make a “strong argument” on this issue.

“We … need strong multilateral relations and more investments in global cooperation to achieve our climate change goals.”

On the erosion of trust, Messner said he was referring to “the current polarised global debates between powerful nations and includes the political situation and energy crisis [since] Russia invaded Ukraine”.

Pan Jiahua, director of the research centre for sustainable development at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, speaking after Messner at the same event, said geopolitical tensions and trade disputes would delay global efforts to mitigate climate change.