OREANDA-NEWS  The economic war between the European Union and China will cause damage to Beijing, says Konstantin Ordov, director of the Higher School of Finance at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. 

From China's point of view, we understand that this is a fairly large market, it is a large amount of investment, and there is something to fight for. They can lose a lot of money.

According to the economist, Europeans' dissatisfaction with the wide presence of Chinese electric vehicles in their domestic market is related to the environmental agenda.

"The Europeans are the main initiators of the energy transition and want to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. In this regard, cars are becoming the main pollutants, including the entire oil refining complex, which is associated with the production of gasoline. Then suddenly they found a scythe on a stone — at the moment when it was necessary to reduce the production of cars with internal combustion engines, it turned out that China entered the European domestic market with more affordable and cheaper ones. Having failed to find technological levers that could allow them to compete with China, everyone spat on the usual market instruments and decided to use sanctions, that is, protective measures and duties," he explained.

As The Economist reported, the European Union is preparing for a trade war with China. This is due to the supply of Chinese electric vehicles. The Europeans plan to influence Beijing through public procurement. They intend to limit the opportunity for Chinese companies to participate in public tenders in Europe.

In July, the European Commission increased import duties on electric vehicles from China in the range of 17.4 to 37.6 percent.