Policy Wire

Brussels filed a formal complaint yesterday alleging China's electric vehicle subsidies violate trade rules - but here's the twist: the EU is simultaneously subsidizing their own green transition. This could reshape how we think about industrial policy in the climate era.

The people this actually affects are workers in both Chinese EV factories and European auto plants - when governments pick winners through subsidies, regular employees become pawns in trade wars they didn't start. The EU's complaint rings hollow when they're doing the exact same industrial policy, just calling it "green transition" instead of "unfair competition."

Here's what happened: EU filed under Article 3.3 of the SCM Agreement, but their own Green Deal Industrial Plan includes €250B in EV subsidies through 2030. The WTO panel will have to distinguish between "climate policy" and "unfair trade advantage" - good luck with that when both involve massive state support for the same technologies.