The European Union has just decided to impose formal tariffs on battery electric cars (BEVs) manufactured in China.

In June, the EU first said that it would impose higher duties on Chinese imports of electric vehicles, citing the fact that the Chinese vehicles "heavily benefit from unfair subsidies" and represent a "threat of economic injury" to European electric car manufacturers.

Individual firms' duties were also revealed in relation to the information they provided to the EU during the bloc's investigation into electric vehicle production in China and their degree of cooperation. The EU started looking at this last year.

Early in July, temporary duties were established.

Then, in September, the European Commission updated its tariff proposals in response to interested parties' "substantiated comments on the provisional measures."

This week, Reuters revealed that the EU was open to holding more negotiations even after tariffs were put in place.

The decision is the result of months of discussions and disagreements amongst EU members about raising tariffs on electric vehicles (EVs) that are imported from China.

While Germany has argued against them, citing concerns about the effects on its own struggling automakers, France has been a strong proponent, having earlier pushed the EU to begin investigating possible levies.

According to Reuters, Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto declared on Thursday that his nation will veto a plan put out by the European Commission that calls for tariffs as high as 45%.

Some EU members have expressed serious concerns about possible reprisal from China, particularly in light of the fact that China has already opened anti-dumping investigations into EU exports of pig and brandy as well as an anti-subsidy inquiry into EU dairy goods.

(Sources: cnbc.com)