Good morning. Today, the EU is pushing ahead with Chinese electric vehicle tariffs that are set to bring in more than €2bn a year, despite opposition from Germany.
The European Commission will notify carmakers that it will provisionally impose additional duties of up to 25 per cent on imported Chinese EVs from next month, according to people familiar with the decision. Brussels argues that Chinese EV makers benefit from subsidies that undercut their European rivals.
The tariffs, championed by France and Spain, will raise billions of euros for the EU budget annually as sales of Chinese EVs grow in Europe. China, the bloc’s largest trading partner, exported €10bn of electric cars to the EU in 2023, doubling its market share last year to 8 per cent, according to analysts at Rhodium Group.
Beijing has warned it would retaliate as it seeks to persuade a majority of EU capitals to oppose the new tariffs, which would be on top of the bloc’s existing 10 per cent duties. Beijing is already applying a 15 per cent tariff on European EVs. Andy Bounds has more details from Brussels.
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The euro: Europe needs to maintain and strengthen the euro’s status as a key global currency amid geopolitical shifts, writes Piero Cipollone, a member of the European Central Bank’s executive board.
And here’s what I’m keeping tabs on today:
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Economic data: The International Energy Agency releases its June oil market report, Germany publishes its May consumer price index and the UK has preliminary April GDP.
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US interest rates: The Federal Reserve is expected to leave borrowing costs unchanged as May inflation figures are also released.
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Russia Day: President Vladimir Putin is expected to speak in Moscow to mark the country’s national holiday.
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Five more top stories
1. Exclusive: Russia has put up for adoption Ukrainian children it abducted in the early months of its invasion, a Financial Times investigation has found. Using image recognition tools, public records and interviews with Ukrainian officials and the children’s relatives, the FT identified and located four Ukrainian children on a Moscow-linked adoption website, including one under a false Russian identity. Read the full story.
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US sanctions: The Treasury is expected to roll out a big expansion of its secondary sanctions programme this week against entities deemed to be working with Russia’s defence sector.
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Ukraine-EU ties: The owner of one of the country’s largest agricultural groups has warned Kyiv against prolonging its dispute with the bloc over food exports, saying it risks losing support in the war with Russia.
2. Exclusive: Rival fundraisers are being held by the Donald Trump and Joe Biden campaigns in London today. Nigel Farage and Donald Trump Jr will attend the Republican event hosted by Australian TV star-turned-activist Holly Valance and her husband, British tycoon Nick Candy. Anna Wintour, the UK-born chief editor of American Vogue, is hosting the Biden fundraiser. Here are more details on both events.
3. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad responded to US President Joe Biden’s ceasefire plan yesterday, with the two groups expressing “readiness to deal positively” to reach an agreement on ending the war in Gaza. An official with knowledge of the talks said the response was “neither a yes nor a no” and contained “amendments” to the Israeli proposal.
4. Exclusive: PwC’s India boss is lobbying for a seat on the Big Four firm’s global executive committee alongside his counterpart in China, arguing that the fast growth of its business and the rising importance of the Indian economy merit a position at the $53bn network’s top table. But some within the firm see Sanjeev Krishan’s move as a “problem”. Here’s why.
5. Analysts have warned that funding for Rishi Sunak’s plan to cut more than £17bn of taxes was questionable. The UK prime minister made curbs on national insurance contributions a centrepiece of his manifesto, insisting it would be funded by cuts to welfare and clamping down on tax dodging. One expert said: “Those are definite giveaways paid for by uncertain, unspecific and apparently victimless savings. Forgive a degree of scepticism.”
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The Tory record: We explore the scale of challenges facing the next government after 14 years of Conservative rule, in charts.
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Rachel Reeves: The shadow chancellor has warned of the “dangers” of changing how the Bank of England pays interest on bank reserves, an idea some economists had said could help a Labour government find savings.
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News in-depth
Jordan Bardella may lack the kind of experience and credentials that French voters traditionally expect in their governing class, but he does have a chart-topping TikTok feed. His social media expertise has helped Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National party expand its appeal among the young, propelling it to a crushing victory over Emmanuel Macron’s centrists in EU elections. Who is the 28-year-old vying to be France’s next prime minister?
We’re also reading . . .
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Silent lay-offs: There is no quicker way to expose corporate secrets than to insist on secrecy, as PwC has found out with its attempt to mute the farewells of some staff, writes Andrew Hill.
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South Africa: President Cyril Ramaphosa has to form a governing coalition by Friday. Can his African National Congress hold the country together?
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Greenpeace: The environmental group’s new strategy involves door-to-door canvassing to establish climate change as a leading UK electoral issue.
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Public health: A survey by the World Health Organization suggests that women could be more exposed than men to superbugs, due to a complex mix of factors, writes Anjana Ahuja.
Chart of the day
UK public trust in government has sunk to a record low while dissatisfaction with the NHS and concerns over poverty are at an all-time high, according to today’s British Social Attitudes survey, which also shows Brexit is widely seen as hitting the economy.
Take a break from the news
Kevin Kwan’s debut novel Crazy Rich Asians covered his signature themes: private-jet-wealthy Asian dynasties and late-capitalist excess. Now, the Singapore-born author has a new novel on the way, Lies and Weddings. Think “Crazy Rich Asians mated with Saltburn.”
Additional contributions from Benjamin Wilhelm and Gordon Smith
Read the full article here