The European Union should "reconsider" a plan to impose tariffs of up to 36% on Chinese electric cars, Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Wednesday during a visit to Shanghai, calling to finding a solution rather than having a trade war.

The European Commission, which oversees the bloc's trade policy, announced last month that it planned to levy five-year import duties of up to 36% on electric vehicles imported from China.

The following day, Beijing said it would launch a probe into EU subsidies of some dairy products exported to China.

"I have to be blunt and frank with you that we need to reconsider all of us, not only member states but also the Commission, our decision toward this," Sanchez told journalists in the economic powerhouse city of Shanghai, after being asked about the tariffs.

"As I said before, we don't need another war, in this case, a trade war," he added.

"I think that we need to build bridges between the European Union and China and from Spain.

"What we'll do is to be constructive, and to try to find a solution, a compromise between China and the European Commission."

Sanchez's visit has seen him meet top officials including President Xi Jinping and call for "dialogue and cooperation" with the world's second-largest economy.

The trip comes against the backdrop of mounting trade tensions between the European Union and China, primarily over Beijing's subsidies for its electric vehicles sector.

In June, China launched an anti-dumping investigation into pork imports from the bloc in response to an application submitted by a local trade grouping on behalf of domestic producers.

The Iberian nation is the European Union's largest exporter of pork products to China, selling more than 560,000 tons last year totaling 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion), according to industry body Interporc.