00:00Well essentially we had that vote at the start of this month on October 4th, which
00:06really was the big one for member states to have their say on whether these
00:10tariffs should go into effect. 10 voting in favor, 5 voting against, 12
00:16abstaining. So that means effectively that member states by consensus gave the
00:22green light for these tariffs to take effect on Thursday as we've heard there.
00:27That does however still leave the door open to future negotiations. So that's
00:31not to say that come Thursday the door is shut for these conversations. That is
00:36why we've heard from both the Chinese Commerce Ministry as
00:41well as EU officials here in Brussels saying that they are hoping that these
00:45talks will continue. Of course we've had eight rounds of technical talks so far.
00:51China's Commerce Ministry inviting the EU for another round of technical
00:55discussions in China. But according to the EU they say that substantial gaps
01:01remain and these latest comments from China's Commerce Ministry further
01:06elaborate and expand on that point of perhaps how big those gaps do remain.
01:12Could you just clear up for us Will, when is the EU going to make its
01:16final decision then and what can we expect to happen next?
01:22Well essentially the decision as far as member states is final that that vote
01:27was putting forward that they were happy for these tariffs to take effect.
01:31Tariffs that would potentially be in effect for at least five years. What this
01:39move later this week is simply a ratification that these tariffs will
01:42start to come into effect so these various companies will start seeing
01:47these duties come into place. Negotiations will though continue in
01:52the background if indeed there's no solution found between China and the
01:58European Commission by then. That is why the EU is perhaps leaving the door open
02:04as far as they've said in their latest statement to negotiations to go along
02:08not just between the EU and China but with individual companies. That of course
02:12as we're hearing from China's Commerce Ministry has had cold water poured over
02:19it so negotiations are still expected to continue whether or not these tariffs do
02:26indeed take effect a little later this week.
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