UK Business Secretary says the UK will not put tariffs on Chinese vehicles and he will not change trade rules due to EU pressure, according to The Guardian

The remark places the UK on the opposite side of the Chinese electric vehicle tariff question from its largest trading partners, both of which have imposed or escalated duties on Chinese EVs on subsidy grounds. Divergence of this kind is the recurring post-Brexit trade story: London retains legal freedom to set its own tariff schedule but every exercise of it invites friction with Brussels, and comments explicitly rejecting EU pressure are aimed at the domestic political audience as much as at trading partners. The practical transmission channel is the UK auto and parts complex, where cheaper Chinese imports weigh on domestic manufacturers and their supply chains, alongside any retaliation risk to UK exports into China, which in past episodes of trade friction has landed on autos, luxury goods and agricultural products. The distinction worth drawing is between a stated position and a formal decision: verbal commitments not to act have been reversed in comparable episodes once domestic industry lobbying or alliance coordination intensifies, and trade remedy investigations can be opened by complaint rather than by ministerial initiative. The follow-ons are whether Brussels or Washington raise the issue formally, whether UK carmakers press for an anti-subsidy probe, and any Chinese readout on market access. As a ministerial statement rather than a policy instrument, the signal is directional.