BERLIN : German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told business weekly Wirtschaftswoche that he was not convinced about the need to impose tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles (EV).

The European Commission is investigating whether it should impose punitive tariffs to protect European Union automakers from cheaper Chinese EV imports it says are benefiting from state subsidies.

“I am not very convinced of this, to put it politely,” Scholz told Wirtschaftswoche in an interview published on Thursday.

“Our economic model should not be based or rely on protectionism – but on the attractiveness of our products.”

He noted that there had been similar concerns when Japanese automakers entered the German market in the 1980s and also in the 1990s when South Korean companies came. “And yet we held our ground,” he said.