FirstFT: EU to push ahead with tariffs on Chinese EVs despite German opposition

Good morning. The EU has brushed aside warnings from Germany and is to introduce tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, raising billions of euros for the bloc’s budget.

The European Commission is to notify carmakers later today 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.

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 warned it would retaliate as it seeks to persuade a majority of EU capitals to oppose the new tariffs, which have been championed by France and Spain. Beijing is already applying a 15 per cent tariff on European EVs. Andy Bounds has more details from Brussels.

• Martin Wolf: We are moving into a protectionist world, our chief economics commentator argues, as in the early 1930s. These policies are politically appealing but lousy economics.

And here’s what I’m keeping tabs on today:

• Economic data: The May US consumer price index will be updated hours before the Federal Reserve concludes its latest rate-setting meeting. On an annual basis, economists expect prices to have risen 3.4 per cent.

• US interest rates: The Fed is expected to keep rates on hold in the range of 5.25-5.5 per cent but investors will closely watch for any changes to the “dot plot” chart of rate-setters’ interest-rate expectations.

• Politics: Fashion icon Anna Wintour and Donald Trump Jr will be at rival fund-raising events in London tonight for Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Here’s a preview.

• Russia-Cuba relations: A Russian naval flotilla is due to be met by Cuba’s Communist authorities in Havana Bay later today, in a sign of improving relations between the two allies.

Join FT journalists at 12pm BST today for an exclusive webinar on how the recent European elections will reshape the region. Sign up here.

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.

• 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.

• 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. Hamas has demanded changes to a ceasefire proposal backed by the US and the UN Security Council, complicating talks on a plan to free Israeli hostages. One unnamed Israeli official, quoted in Hebrew media, said the changes were to “all of the main and most meaningful parameters” and significant enough to amount to a rejection of the Biden proposal. Here’s the latest on the high-stakes, four-way negotiations.

3. The world faces a “staggering” surplus of oil equating to millions of barrels a day by the end of the decade, the International Energy Agency has warned, as oil companies increase production. This “massive cushion” of extra oil could “upend” the efforts of Opec+ to manage the market and usher in an era of lower prices, the IEA said in its annual report published earlier today. The predictions were decried by oil industry executives.

4. 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. Shari Redstone has ended talks with Skydance Media over a deal that would have handed control of entertainment empire Paramount from her family to billionaire scion David Ellison. The decision closes the books on months of talks between Ellison’s Skydance and Redstone’s National Amusements that had left the future of Paramount hanging in the balance. The news hit Paramount’s share price.

Today’s big read

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has until Friday to form a governing coalition after his African National Congress party lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since the end of white minority rule three decades ago. Can the ANC hold the economically divided nation together?

We’re also reading . . . 

• Hunter Biden: While Democrats try to draw line under a “family matter” the Republicans are turning their gaze to the president’s son’s business affairs.

• France: Jordan Bardella was plucked from relative obscurity by far-right party leader Marine Le Pen and is now potentially on the brink of power.

• 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.

• 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.

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 a new 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 Tee Zhuo and Benjamin Wilhelm