The future competitiveness of the European economy could be ruined.
"The European Union's proposal on punitive tariffs on Chinese electric cars is harmful and dangerous, Hungary will therefore definitely vote against it," Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, announced on Thursday in Gest. According to the ministry's statement, the head of the ministry, speaking from the postponed government meeting, informed that the EU member states will vote on Friday on the proposal according to which punitive duties would be imposed on Chinese electric car industry players.
"The Brussels bureaucrats are preparing to ritually kill the future competitiveness of the European economy tomorrow," he said.
He pointed out that although the European Commission argues for the protection of the interests of the continent's car manufacturers, the largest companies in the sector, which also have factories in Hungary, "protest hand and foot" against what they consider to be an extremely harmful and dangerous proposal.
"But why is this proposal of the Brussels bureaucrats harmful and dangerous and why can it ritually kill European competitiveness? The backbone of the European economy is the automobile industry, isn't it [...] However, the European automobile industry companies have extremely close cooperation with the Chinese automobile industry companies," warned the minister, who cited Hungary as the best example, where the relationship between the large German automobile manufacturers and among their Chinese suppliers.
"Strategic alliances with Eastern, mostly Chinese, suppliers are a basic element in the strategy of many large European car manufacturing companies. Also, a significant number of large European car manufacturing companies consider China to be a very important market, where they have very serious sales interests. In addition, several European car manufacturing companies have factories and locations in China," he listed.
Péter Szijjártó therefore highlighted that the planned EU punitive tariffs are against the interests of European car manufacturers, risky and dangerous for them. Therefore, the proposal of the Brussels bureaucrats is extremely risky and extremely dangerous for the entire European economy.
He said, in addition, the targeted country uses response measures in all similar cases.
"We have already experienced the foreshadowing of this, when the Chinese authorities announced inspections and restrictions on certain food and agricultural products," he said. "Western European countries export hundreds of billions of euros to China every year, and it is clear that some of this export performance may be in jeopardy if the Chinese take retaliatory measures," he added.
"Thus, the European Commission's proposal regarding the tariffs imposed on the Chinese automotive industry is bad from every point of view, harmful from every point of view, and extremely dangerous from every point of view," he opined.
The minister stated that Hungary will therefore vote strongly against this proposal. According to his words, all the more so because this week he held talks with the leaders of the largest German automotive companies, who unanimously took a stand against the draft.
"We hope that there will be more member states that will behave rationally, will take into account their own national economic interests, and will not give in to some mainstream pressure," he said.
He explained that the automotive industry in our country maintains 175,000 jobs directly, and indirectly several times more, and the sector accounts for approximately one third of the total Hungarian industrial output, so it is extremely important to preserve the competitiveness of the European and Hungarian automotive industry.
Cover image source: Facebook/Péter Szijjártó
