China firmly opposes any form of protectionism, and will safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies, said Ding Weishun, an official from the Ministry of Commerce, on Wednesday, as the country's latest response to EU's reported tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. 

The remarks came as the European Commission will notify on Wednesday that it will provisionally apply additional duties of up to 25 percent on imported Chinese electric vehicles from next month, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Ding said that the EU has been leveraging various discriminatory trade means to launch investigations on Chinese companies, which will seriously affect the confidence of enterprises in related cooperation overseas.

"Such moves are typical means of protectionism ... but they won't stop Chinese new energy companies in going global," Ding said.

(Source: chinadaily.com.cn)