China has agreed to cut its exports of hybrid cars to the European Union by half, according to European trade commissioner Maroš Sefčovič. The agreement follows a period of rising tensions between the two trading partners, during which Beijing had reportedly rejected earlier requests from Brussels to voluntarily reduce these shipments, according to the Financial Times.
Sefčovič described the two days of talks in Beijing with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao as a positive first step. However, he noted that the final decision on the export reduction still requires approval from Brussels. The trade surplus between the EU and China has been a source of contention, prompting Germany and France to previously urge the European Commission to develop a "last-resort" trade instrument to address the imbalance.
The Chinese Commerce Ministry released a list of 16 "consensus outcomes" on Friday. Among these items were export licenses for rare earths and permanent magnets to the EU. Sefčovič did not specify a timeline for when these rare earth exports would begin.
The current negotiations are part of the EU-China Trade and Investment Consultations, which held their first meeting on June 29. According to the Chinese readout, the two sides agreed to meet again in March, with a video conference scheduled for January.