The US and Europe have concerns over the level of tariffs and import levels in their links with Asia.
The US concerns have manifested themselves in a formal complaint filed with the World Trade Organisation over alleged tariff impositions on vehicle imports worth more than $3bn (CYN18.9bn). The levies apparently apply to more than 80% of US exports to China - or around 92,000 passenger vehicles.
The complaint comes at a time when the US Presidential election campaign is starting to reach its climax, but also reflects China's stated aim at the end of last year to impose anti-dumping duties on GM and Chrysler vehicles. Although duties were imposed on European manufacturers as well, these were significantly lower.
The high levels of tax is one reason why many overseas manufacturers' are striving to form joint ventures to build vehicles in China and grab a share of the world's biggest car market. Ironically, the news coincided with an announcement by Chinese officials that the country is set to cut tariffs on some 700 categories of imported goods as part of a reformation of China's foreign trade structure.
Meanwhile the representative body of Europe's car manufacturers, ACEA used the First Anniversary of the EU-South Korean free trade agreement (FTA) to express its view that the results of the FTA may be one-way traffic.
According to the organisation, between July last year and May 2012, S Korea exported 400,000 passenger cars to EU countries, while only 73,000 went the other way. Although the latter figure is a 13% year-on-year improvement (with S Korea's exports up 4% ACEA believes the imbalance in clear and that Europe's automotive non-tariff barriers may be to blame.