Arabic version: الصين توافق على خفض صادرات السيارات الهجينة إلى الاتحاد الأوروبي إلى النصف

According to Cnbc, China has agreed to halve its exports of hybrid cars to the European Union, European Trade Commissioner Maroš Sefčovič said Friday. He said the final decision still requires approval in Brussels.

The reported agreement followed two days of talks in Beijing between Sefčovič and China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao. Sefčovič described the discussions as a positive first step after a summer of rising tensions between China and the EU.

Europe had called on China to voluntarily reduce hybrid-car exports to the continent. Authorities in Beijing had reportedly rejected that request, according to the Financial Times. The widening trade surplus between the EU and China has remained a point of contention, while Germany and France had previously called on Brussels to develop a “last-resort” trade instrument to address imbalances.

China’s Commerce Ministry released a list of 16 “consensus outcomes” on Friday. These included licenses for rare-earth and permanent-magnet exports to the EU, although Sefčovič did not provide a timeline for those exports. The Chinese readout said the two sides would next meet in March, following a video conference in January. It also referenced the first EU-China Trade and Investment Consultations meeting on June 29.