The Chinese company Jiangling Group Electric Vehicle (JMEV) plans to build an electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Sremska Mitrovica in northwestern Serbia with the long-term goal of exporting cars to the European Union without paying duties. This was reported to Radio Free Europe by Brancica Zjalic, JMEV project manager in Serbia.
“The size of the investment will be determined in the next two months and depends on whether we will produce three thousand or five thousand cars a year,” Zjalic said. She added that Serbia was chosen because of its good economic relations with both China and the EU. “Serbia is a kind of bridge between China and Europe in terms of sales of electric vehicles,” she said.
In October 2024, the European Union imposed high duties (up to 35%) on electric vehicles made in China for five years to protect European automakers from allegedly unfair competition from Chinese manufacturers that benefit from government subsidies.
Serbia, for its part, signed a free trade agreement with China that entered into force in 2024, which has drawn criticism from the EU given Serbia’s status as a candidate for accession to the Union.
Source: https://t.me/relocationrs/542
