The European Union says China has agreed to hold back one of its fastest-growing exports. China says only that the two sides reached an understanding. The gap between those two sentences is the story, because the number that matters, how many Chinese hybrid cars will reach Europe over the next four years, has not been published by anyone.

EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said in Beijing on Friday, after two days of talks with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, that the two sides had reached a deal that could cut Chinese exports of hybrid cars to the bloc by more than half, according to Reuters. The "shared understanding" would "moderate" exports of hybrids and plug-in hybrids and would keep several million cars out of Europe over four years, he said. He did not say how it would be carried out.

"We have reached a shared understanding to moderate China's exports of hybrids and plug-in hybrids to the EU," Šefčovič said, as quoted by the trade publication Automotive World. "This opens the prospect of cutting China's exports by more than a half." He told reporters it was "the first time that China has accepted to moderate its exports without going through the phase of prior trade tension," according to The Guardian, a reference to the formal investigations that normally have to precede safeguard measures under World Trade Organization rules.