The EU will impose tariffs of up to 37.6 per cent from Friday on imports of electric vehicles made in China, EU officials said, ratcheting up tensions with Beijing in Brussels’ largest trade case yet.

There is however a four-month window during which the tariffs are provisional and intensive talks are expected to continue between the two sides as Beijing threatens wide-ranging retaliation.

The European Commission’s provisional duties of between 17.4 per cent and 37.6 per cent without backdating are designed to prevent what its president Ursula von der Leyen has said is a threatened flood of cheap EVs built state subsidies.

The rates, laid out in a 208-page document published on Thursday, are almost exactly the same as those announced by the Commission on June 12. The executive made slight adjustments after companies identified minor calculation errors in the initial disclosure.

Beijing said then it would take “all necessary measures” to safeguard China’s interests.

These could include retaliatory tariffs on exports to China of products such as cognac or pork. EU trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis said there is no basis for China to retaliate.

“Our aim is to ... ensure fair competition and level playing field,” he said.

The EU anti-subsidy investigation has nearly four more months to run.

At the end of it, the commission, the EU’s executive arm, could propose “definite duties”, typically applying for five years, on which EU members would vote. “Those talks with China are ongoing and indeed should a mutually beneficial solution emerge, we can also find ways not to apply at the end of the day the tariffs,” Dombrovskis said.

“But it is very clear this solution (would) need to solve that market distortion that we are currently having ... and it needs to be market compliant.” China’s commerce ministry said on Thursday both sides have so far held several rounds of technical talks over tariffs on the issue.

“We hope that the European and Chinese sides will move in the same direction, show sincerity, and push forward with the consultation process as soon as possible,” He Yadong, a ministry spokesperson, said.

BYD will face duties of 17.4 per cent, Geely 19.9 per cent and SAIC 37.6per cent, the EU said on Thursday. These are on top of the EU’s standard 10per cent duty on car imports.

Companies deemed by the EU to have cooperated with the anti-subsidy investigation, including western carmakers Tesla and BMW, will be subject to 20.8per cent tariffs and those that did not cooperate a rate of 37.6per cent.

Volkswagen was swift to criticise Thursday’s announcement. “The negative effects of this decision outweigh any benefits for the European and especially the German automotive industry,” a Volkswagen spokesperson said.