Italy and Spain are backing European Union tariffs on imports of China-built electric vehicles, government sources said ahead of a Monday midnight deadline for all 27 EU members to take their stand on the matter.
The vote is non-binding, but it could influence the final conclusion of the European Commission, which oversees the bloc's trade policy. It set provisional duties of up to 37.6% on EVs imported from China, ratcheting up tensions with Beijing.
The EU executive is canvassing EU governments' views in an "advisory" vote, which the Commission is expected to take into account when deciding whether to follow up with definitive duties in what is the EU's highest profile trade case yet.
The Commission says the vote is confidential and it will not disclose the outcome.
Government sources said on Monday that Italy had voted in favour and that Spain would do the same in their written submissions. Sweden plans to abstain, trade minister Johan Forssell told Reuters. Germany is also set to abstain, sources said on Friday. One of them said this was in the spirit of "critical solidarity" with the Commission.
A number of EU governments have been hesitating.
Poland's development ministry said Warsaw's position was still the subject of consultations between ministries. Greece had yet to take a position as of Saturday.
A decade ago, the EU executive did not impose tariffs on Chinese solar panels after it became clear that a large group of EU members did not support them. EU manufacturing subsequently collapsed.
The Commission will continue its investigation and determine whether to propose definitive duties that would typically apply for five years.
If it does push for tariffs, they will come up for a binding vote among the EU members, and would be blocked if a qualified majority of 15 member countries representing 65% of the EU population vote against.
The near-four month window before then will allow Brussels and Beijing to negotiate a possible resolution to tariffs that would hit Chinese producers such as BYD, Geely and SAIC and Western automakers such as Tesla and BMW. Beijing has threatened wide-ranging retaliation.
