Szijjártó: Hungary will vote against EU tariffs on Chinese electric cars

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has described the imposition of EU tariffs on Chinese electric car companies as an extremely bad idea, and said Hungary would vote against their introduction. The Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in New York on Monday evening, and following the meeting the minister said that punitive EU duties would definitely have a negative impact on the European economy, MTI reports.

"Hungary is a prime example of how civilised East-West cooperation can generate significant economic benefits. I believe that if we want to improve the dramatically weakening competitiveness of the European Union, it is not possible to do so while seeing China as a rival, and instead of building a cooperation between China and Europe, creating a sort of European-Chinese confrontation," Szijjártó said, adding that Brussels keeps citing the interests of European car manufacturers on this, when the measure would also cause serious damage to them, as they are also present in the East Asian country's market.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister also voiced his support for the Chinese-Brazilian peace plan aimed at an urgent settlement of the war in Ukraine. "We very much appreciate the fact that China is practically leading the global pro-peace majority, and Hungary will continue to do everything in its power to ensure the success of global pro-peace efforts, and we will continue our close cooperation with the People's Republic of China to this end", Szijjártó said.