The president of Italy’s automotive industry association ANFIA, Roberto Vavassori, has urged the European Union to impose an 80% tariff on Chinese-made vehicles and auto components imported above a set quota.
Under Vavassori’s proposal, Chinese imports into the EU should remain duty-free up to a level equivalent to 8% of annual vehicle registrations in Europe. Volumes above that threshold would face an 80% tariff. The measure would apply both to finished vehicles and to components, which, according to the ANFIA president, account for about 80% of a car’s value.
“We have maximum respect for what the Chinese industry has achieved. But that respect has now turned into fear. Europe cannot lose an industry that is critical to its strategic autonomy,” Vavassori said.
The proposal comes against the backdrop of Volkswagen’s restructuring and shrinking European production. According to ACEA, the share of Chinese brands in the EU market already exceeded 9% in the first half of 2026.
Italian auto-component suppliers exported €4.9 billion worth of products to Germany in 2025; Volkswagen accounted for up to 20% of that volume. Vavassori forecasts that exports will fall by around 10% in 2026 after a 4.6% decline in the first half. Without protection from Chinese imports, Italian component exports could drop by 40–50% by 2028. “That would indeed be the end of the story,” he warned.
The EU currently levies a standard 10% tariff on car imports plus additional duties on Chinese electric vehicles; the combined burden ranges from roughly 18% to 45% depending on the manufacturer. Those measures were introduced in 2024 for five years. Vavassori considers them insufficient: existing restrictions mainly target pure electric cars, while a large share of Chinese imports are hybrids and internal-combustion vehicles. He also questions the localization of Chinese manufacturers in Europe, describing their plants as largely assembly operations.
