Brussels has recently told Andy Burnham's government to raise tariffs on Chinese-built electric vehicles and get in step with the European Union's trade policy. Otherwise, the United Kingdom's supply chains will no longer be treated as European under the bloc's made-in-Europe plans.

 

London has spent weeks lobbying hard for that exact treatment, as reported by the Financial Times, arguing that everything automotive-related belongs inside that European tent. Brussels, however, wants the United Kingdom to guard the door first and talk after. The EU's preferred solution is the one Britain keeps refusing.