The spokesperson for China's Ministry of Commerce said today that the agency is now reviewing a domestic petition for a trade barrier investigation on the EU’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) investigations.

In response to a recent statement by President Biden on Chinese subsidies to the EV sector, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has weighed in on the issue. The rhetoric from both sides merits some fact checking and clarification.

Last week, the U.S. Commerce Department initiated anti-dumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations on silicon photovoltaic cells from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, with a focus on Chinese-headquartered companies that are producing in those countries.

A recent social media post tied to Chinese state media warned against EU actions against Chinese subsidies, stating that "China actually has sufficient countermeasures."

In an opinion issued last week, Advocate General Tamara Ćapeta of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) concluded that the European Commission's treatment of cross-border subsidies in anti-subsidy investigations was consistent with EU law.

In a statement today, China's Chamber of Commerce to the EU (CCCEU) criticized the EU's enforcement of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) as "selective" and "discriminatory," and questioned its WTO-consistency.

The European Commission announced today that in response to investigations under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR), two consortia that include Chinese solar companies had withdrawn their bid for a Romanian procurement contract.